An Islamic Charity alleged by David Cameron to be a front group for Hizb ut-Tahrir, the radical Islamist group, receives £70,000 a year state funding, according to new research.
The Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation is being given grants to fund places for children at two nurseries in Haringey and Slough.
The funding is provided as part of the Government’s ‘free early education’ scheme, which aims to provide all children aged three and four with at least 15 hours of free teaching each week.
The charity was described by David Cameron as a ‘front group’ for Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir when he was Leader of the Opposition, and Michael Gove, as Shadow Education Secretary, said they should not receive state funding.
In 2012, the Telegraph wrote that a leaked government document identified it as ‘of concern’ over potential extremism.
The latest research from the British Humanist Association, however, suggests that the group still receives substantial government funding. Head of Public Affairs, Pavan Dhaliwal, said: “There is a large number of private schools that due to concerns about creationism or fundamentalism would be deemed to be inappropriate by the Government to get state funding through the Free Schools programme but are being propped up by the state as a result of getting funding through their nurseries.
2Two of the schools involved have been repeatedly dogged by accusations of extremism and five years ago Michael Gove and David Cameron made a big stand about how they should not be getting funding, yet nothing has changed since – despite four years of Coalition Government.
“The Department for Education urgently needs to be getting its ducks in a row to ensure consistent policies on appropriateness for funding across the Department and we will be doing what we can to raise this issue further.”