The UK’s largest Muslim charity has been cleared of all allegations of institutional antisemitism in an independent report. Islamic Relief UK had stopped receiving government funding after controversy around social media posts of two trustees and a senior member of staff.
According to Dominic Grieve, the former Conservative attorney general who led the independent review, Islamic Relief Worldwide, a global organisation with an annual income of about £130m, was a “highly effective charity” performing “crucial humanitarian work around the world”.
In his review, he noted, “We found absolutely no evidence that the reputational issues that have arisen over the conduct of a few individuals has had any link to the way IRW carries out this charitable work.
“On the contrary, the charity has made a lot of effort to ensure there isn’t antisemitism, and I saw no evidence of it among staff whatsoever.”
The Times had earlier disclosed that Tayeb Abdoun, network and resource development director, had been tweeting antisemitic material under an alias, but the charity had acted swiftly to deal with the individual. Abdoun, who had worked for the charity for more than 25 years, was forced to tend his resignation. A few months earlier it was revealed that two trustees had posted antisemitic comments on social media before they were appointed. A new board of trustees was appointed soon afterwards.
As a result of the disclosures, the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) suspended its funding of the charity, along with the German and US governments.
Dominic Grieve’s report makes 19 recommendations to improve the charity’s governance, including more non-Muslim and independent trustees, a better gender balance in the organisation, updating its code of conduct and developing a new personal social media policy. Since August, IRW’s board of trustees has consisted of three women and four men, but its board of directors – the most senior staff – are all men. IRW said it was committed to fully implementing the report’s recommendations.
