“The report is fundamentally flawed. Policy Exchange seeks to name and shame institutions, not on the basis of evidence, but purely on the basis of their religious denomination or organisational affiliation. Further, there is a distinct difference between those institutions where receipts were genuine – these were largely apolitical, literalist and ultra-conservative Salafist or Deobandi ones – and those where the receipts have come under suspicion: institutions that were pragmatic and tolerant in their interpretation of Islam but according to the report were connected to the MCB. In my view, the evidence was cherry-picked to create a pre-determined conclusion designed to support an extreme ideology at odds with our national interests.”
Abdurahman Jafar produces the best demolition so far of the Policy Exchange report The Hijacking of British Islam.