Tell MAMA’s days may be numbered amid a funding dispute with the UK Government following reports No.10 declared that it will cease all financial support for the state-backed anti-Islamophobia charity.
Since its establishment in 2012, Tell MAMA has relied almost entirely on funding from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to report anti-Muslim hate crimes, aid victims, and collaborate with police forces to bring perpetrators to justice.
The Government’s reported decision to terminate funding could come into effect at the end of this month, with no alternative support framework disclosed.
Fiyaz Mughal, the controversial founder of Tell MAMA, condemned the funding cut, cautioning that vulnerable victims of anti-Muslim hate would lose a vital lifeline.
“There will be more individuals targeted — we know this given the current climate — so where will they turn?” Mughal remarked in an interview with The Guardian.
However, on March 13, Faith Minister Lord Khan of Burnley told Parliament that there is £1 million of funding available for Tell Mama if they sign the Government’s grant funding agreement.
He told peers that all organisations must sign a standard government agreement before receiving government funds, but that Tell Mama has not yet signed theirs.
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The Labour peer told The Independent: “As soon as it is signed and returned, we will instruct payment. Following yesterday’s meeting, I am confident this will be resolved soon.”
Mughal earlier accused the Government of inconsistency, stating: “Labour speaks often about tackling Islamophobia, yet they are slashing support for the only project operating on a national scale — assisting victims, partnering with numerous police forces, and facilitating prosecutions.
“I’m unaware of any other organisation capable of undertaking this work. Even if a new entity tried, it would take them 10 to 15 years to achieve what Tell MAMA has accomplished.”
Muslim community reaction
Muslim group MEND reacted to the news by saying this was an opportunity for the government to work with grassroots Muslim groups.
In a statement MEND said: “It is impossible to combat Islamophobia without access to reliable data on the phenomenon. Therefore we need organisations who work to diligently collect this.
“However, Tell Mama and its founder, Fiyaz Mughal, have always been deeply problematic. The organisation often avoided the widely accepted term ‘Islamophobia’ in its work, thus refusing to accept that Islamophobia is much more than a narrow definition of anti-Muslim hatred. As such it did little to tackle the structural or institutional Islamophobia emanating from media, political parties and right-wing institutions. It was previously led by Richard Benson, a former head of the pro-Israel Community Security Trust. Such issues left it discredited among the Muslim community.
“The organisation has also long been dogged by accusations that it underreports incidents of Islamophobia and plays down the seriousness of this form of hatred in the UK. For example, its founder, Fiyaz Mughal, has blamed Muslims for having a ‘victimisation narrative’ and has tried to smear organisations like MEND who work to tackle Islamophobia as ‘Islamist peddlers of victimhood.’ We note that for many years the Muslim community have been the largest religious group targeted for religious hate crime according to the Home Office’s own statistics hence this minimisation of the suffering of these victims has been particularly offensive to the Muslim community.
“It made very little sense that Mr Mughal was willing to spread ideas that fed into the same Islamophobic tropes that his organisation was ostensibly established to challenge. With this organisation now defunded, government has the opportunity to engage with groups that genuinely represent the Muslim community. Therefore, MEND calls upon the government to reallocate its funding to legitimately grassroots civil society bodies who work to record cases of Islamophobia and provide support to victims. We encourage the government to proactively seek out and establish ties with such organisations as soon as possible to help our community stand up to hatred and bigotry.”
Tell MAMA controversies
Tell Mama has proved to be controversial amongst Muslims since its launch, especially in its early years under founder Fiyaz Mughal.
While some have been applauded its systematic monitoring of Islamophobia and acknowledge that this is a much-needed service for the community, others are uneasy over its government funding and some of its partners which have included pro-Israelis and a “lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Muslim group.”
In March 2014, a prominent gay rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell, joined the Tell MAMA charity as a patron in a move which raised eyebrows in the British Muslim community given that homosexuality is condemned as a sin in Islam.
In a 2014 statement, Tell MAMA said: “Peter Tatchell has campaigned for nearly 50 years on human rights issues and has been one of the key drivers against homophobia. He has also campaigned against tyranny in Zimbabwe and in Russia, where he was brutally assaulted calling for LGBT rights.
“Peter’s vision encompasses human rights for all communities. He has campaigned against extremist faith preachers who oppose equal rights for women, LGBT communities and people who do not share their perspective on faith.”
Photography by Arif Gardner AG Studios. Photographer in Hertfordshire
In the past Peter Tatchell has been critical of “Islamic fundamentalism” and has described Sharia as a “clerical form of fascism” on the grounds that it opposes democracy and human rights, especially for women and gay people.
Just weeks later Tell MAMA appointed the former head of the pro-Israel Community Security Trust (CST) as its co-chair.
Richard Benson chaired the CST for 12 years. The group’s remit is to protect Britain’s Jewish community form external threats such as “bigotry, anti-semitism and terrorism.” But critics say that the CST is a Zionist group.
In July 2014, Tell Mama announced the results of its annual report on Islamophobia in the UK at an event organised by the infamous Quilliam Foundation.
The Quilliam Foundation was founded in 2007 by Maajid Nawaz and Ed Husain.
Since its foundation the Quilliam Foundation has been widely criticised by Muslim organisations for putting the emphasis on extremism within the Muslim community.
In July 2015, Fiyaz Mughal, the founder of Tell Mama, defended his group sharing a platform with Quilliam Foundation on the Left Foot Forward blog, stating:
“We will speak at any platform, (apart from extremist groups and those who have used prejudiced terms against whole communities).”
