August 12, 2015; Civil Society UK
Civil Society, a UK independent publishing company specializing in charity news, published online a rather extraordinary headline: “Muslim charities investigated by Commission half as often as Christian ones.”
The report continued, “Last year, the Charity Commission opened cases and inquiries into 379 religious charities, of which 153 were Christian and 85 were Muslim.”
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It is only by reading somewhat further that we learn that: “The Commission does not provide total figures for the number of Christian and Muslim charities it regulates, although its register lists roughly 30,000 charities involved in religious activities, most of which are Christian.”
Further on, it says:
Independent analysis by the Muslim Charities Forum has suggested there are around 2,000 charities which classify themselves as Muslim, but this includes unregistered groups. Nor is it certain that they all list Muslim religious activities as one of their purposes.
It’s a bit hard to do the math based on so few data points, but is this a rather oblique attempt to counter allegations of anti-Muslim bias that have been frequently laid at the Commission’s door? I think we should know.—John Godfrey
