There has been a very interesting Press Release put out by the Network of Sikh Organisations (NSO) which is an entity that represents the interests and views of many British Sikhs. This particular Press Release is of interest because it concerns alleged wrongdoings by Fiyaz Mughal, the founder of the Tell Mama and Faith Matters groups and one of Britain’s most high profile Islamic grievance mongers.

The Press Release, the text of which is reproduced below, makes worrying reading and will probably quite rightly anger many people. It is a matter of concern and anger not just for British Sikhs, but for anyone who is concerned about how public money is spent. It is also relevant to those who are worried about the activities of people like Fiyaz Mughal and the undue and often malevolent influence they are having on government, administration, policing and the judicial system.

First of all here is the text of the Press Release from the Network of Sikh Organisations. Also included are screen shots of Tweets sent out by Mughal’s Faith Matters vehicle. As is usual policy for this blog the original text from NSO is in italics whereas the blog’s comments are in plain text.

Back in 2008 Faith Matters, the organisation behind Tell MAMA (the Muslim hate crime monitor) organised a ‘cohesive communities’ project for British Sikhs and Muslims to address, ‘the growing gulf between Sikhs and Muslims in certain localised areas of England’. It was held in Corrymeela (Ballycastle) between 4^th-6^th July 2008, a centre famous for conflict resolution at the height of sectarian troubles in Northern Ireland. According to FOI disclosures seen by the NSO the project cost the taxpayer £33,600.

Following the residential course four (out of nine) of the Sikh participants felt disgruntled enough to publish what they called an ‘Alternative Report’, (dated 1 October 2008) to express their concerns. They wrote: ‘In the view of many Sikh participants, the whole exercise proved faulty and dysfunctional; and failed to enable a wholesome and engaged dialogue on the critical Sikh-Muslims issues.’

In the same year the founder of Faith Matters, Mr Fiyaz Mughal, talked about the project in an article published by Faith Matters titled: ‘Cohesive Communities: Bridging Divides Between Muslim and Sikh Communities.’ He writes: ‘As the name suggests, the Cohesive Communities project was a chance for key issues to be aired and a start to the interaction process between both faiths. It was not meant as a basis to provide legitimisation for either community to use the report or its findings against the other and we firmly adhere to this principal.’

Despite the assurances given above, in June 2012, the following tweets (which were later removed following a complaint) making derogatory references to Sikh participants in Corrymeela were published by @FaithMattersUK.

We understand Faith Matters/Tell MAMA has recently organised a ‘round-table’ to discuss hate crime with Sikhs. This is in fact an area in which Sikhs led by the NSO have made significant progress, firstly by unearthing a breakdown of data from the MET police (through FOI) that shows significant numbers of non-Muslims, or those of no recorded faith (in 2015 and 2016) are being recorded under the ‘Islamophobic hate crime category’. In addition, we have a firm commitment from policy makers on a specific project for Hindus and Sikhs with True Vision – the police hate-crime reporting portal, which we hope to progress with our partners in the Hindu community this year.

We believe the 2012 tweets made by @FaithMattersUK, particularly the comparing of Sikhs who entered interfaith dialogue in good faith with Faith Matters to the EDL, and the accompanying hashtag #wolvesinsheepsclothing, are simply not compatible with the aim in creating harmonious relations between British Sikhs and Muslims, or promoting the concept of ‘cohesive communities.’

In the circumstances, it is our advice that Sikh groups should be wary of any partnerships, given what we view to be a previous betrayal.

You can see the original source of the Press Release by following the link below:

http://nsouk.co.uk/faith-matters-and-british-sikhs/

From here on in I shall comment on the content of this press release. Firstly the retreat in Ulster that is mentioned at the outset and the fact that it cost £35k of public money may well be the same £35k that Fiyaz Mughal got from the Department of Communities and Local Government in 2008 and which is listed in this article: ‘Inside Fiyaz Mughal’s Money Making Machine‘. This you may notice when you read that piece is not the only example of Fiyaz Mughal getting and spending money from the taxpayer, money that many people feel could be better spent on something more useful.

The event in Ulster must have been very disturbing for the Sikh participants for four out of nine of them to feel that they had no alternative to publish an Alternative Report on the event, outlining their concerns. It appears that Fiyaz Mughal is alleged to have done little to deal with the issues of Sikh – Muslim conflict which was the theme of the event and instead used information gathered at the conference retreat to bash British Sikhs. Anybody who has had contact with British Sikhs will know that this group has suffered greatly from the depredations that Muslims in some areas have subjected them to and this includes the sexual exploitation by Muslims of Sikh girls and women.

This event was intended to reduce conflict but instead Fiyaz Mughal appears to have exploited the Sikh participants in this event, who seem to have attended this conference in good faith in order to reduce religious tensions. This for me is a totally disgusting and underhand way to treat British Sikhs who are as a community, loyal British subjects who have contributed much to British life and in particular the British military. On a personal note although all communities can produce both angels and demons, my own personal experience of British Sikhs and the experience of members of my family, has been extremely positive.

The use of the information garnered from the event to attack the other community who were participants was, according to the NSO, wrong and on this I agree. It is disgraceful and goes completely against the spirit of openness, probity and honesty that should govern interfaith events like this.

The matter of the now deleted Tweets are especially worrying as they show what looks like a blatant attempt to smear the NSO by comparing them to the English Defence League. It should be remembered that at the time that the events that the Press Release is concerned with, the English Defence League was, despite the commitment of its leaders to non racism, being described, dishonestly I would say based on my experience of them, as the latest ‘far right’ bogeyman by the mainstream media. That said however it needs to be recognised that in the minds of many of the uninformed public, based on what they saw on mainstream media, the EDL were seen as ‘extremists’. This use of a group that was in bad odour in the mainstream media to compare the NSO participants in the Ulster event to is what makes the described smear attempt by Fiyaz Mughal against the NSO so damned reprehensible. The NSO is correct when they say that Fiyaz Mughal’s alleged actions are not those compatible with creating a harmonious society.

But, it’s not only this Sikh organisation that has good reason to complain about the alleged actions of Fiyaz Mughal and his various entities and vehicles. We all do. For at least a decade Fiyaz Mughal has managed to screw vast amounts of money out of the British taxpayer via the Department of Communities and Local Government. Last time I did a calculation in 2017, the amount of taxpayers cash that have been spunked on projects founded or run by Fiyaz Mughal was approaching £1M.

The NSO have, as they said, used FOI requests to ascertain that there are a significant number of non Muslims are reporting attacks on them but these are being recorded erroneously as ‘Islamophobic’ crimes. This may well mean that the amount of genuine violence aimed at Muslims is much lower than it appears to be because attacks on Sikhs and Hindus are being shoved into the ‘Islamophobia’ column. Which individuals and which organisations are making this cataloguing error I do not at this stage know, but what I do know that is that some groups founded by Fiyaz Mughal, namely Tell Mama, thrive on lurid stories of ‘Islamophobia’ in order to gain support and of course public money. It may well be that many of the ‘Islamophobia’ stories that have become shrouds to wave in front of the public on Tell Mama’s social media feeds are nothing of the sort and may even relate to Sikhs and Hindus being assaulted not Muslims.

At this point needs to be pointed out that Tell Mama may have nothing to do with the erroneous crime recording but they have had a past record for playing fast and loose with the truth when it comes to ‘Islamophobia’ or crimes against Muslims. Tell Mama were widely criticised in the press following the murder of Lee Rigby when they paraded blatantly false figures of ‘attacks’ against Muslims. The reality was that the vast majority of these ‘attacks’ constituted little more than Britons saying unpleasant things about Islam online.

Like I said Tell Mama are not being accused in the Press Release of bending the figures of alleged crimes against Muslims, this is a Metropolitan Police issue. But, I cannot help but wonder whether the over recording of ‘Islamophobia’ or attacks on Muslims may have something to do with the extensive and wide ranging influence that Tell Mama has on various police forces?

Here’s some scenarios on how this could happen. It is quite possible that a naïve police officer, impressed by some dog and pony show put on by Tell Mama staff at his police headquarters and knowing that Tell Mama was being supported and promoted by his superiors, may have been more generous and liberal when applying the word ‘Islamophobia’ to crime reports. Such officers may also be relying heavily on Tell Mama’s definitions of ‘Islamophobia’ and ‘anti Muslim hate’ which would also give an upswing to the ‘Islamophobia’ figures. It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that some officers did what Tell Mama told them to do as regards recording ‘hate crimes’ and this may explain partially the inflated numbers?

I look forward to any more accurate figures about crimes where Hindus and Sikhs have been targeted and I would not be surprised if these revised figures show Hindus and Sikhs coming under threat from members of the Islamic community. Targeting Hindus and Sikhs for abuse is something that has happened a lot in Pakistan and India and it would be stupid to imagine that such violent hatred from Muslims to Sikhs and Hindus isn’t happening here. Accurate figures showing Muslims targeting other Asian groups would be highly embarrassing for Tell Mama and groups like them as it would utterly destroy their false victim narrative.

I find myself in compete agreement with the NSO about what they call a ‘betrayal’. This is disgraceful alleged behaviour by Fiyaz Mughal. I also agree with the NSO that religious groups, not just the Sikhs, should be very wary of becoming involved with organisations and projects run by Fiyaz Mughal. It seems to be the case that organisations that Fiyaz Mughal has founded or has been involved in, either slag off those who speak things that they find uncomfortable, as appears to have happened in the case of the NSO, or are used as ‘beards’ to give Tell Mama unearned credibility as groups like the Community Security Trust and individuals such as Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg are used.

To conclude: These are serious allegations of bad faith and bad behaviour by groups founded or run by Fiyaz Mughal. These allegations, from a source that treated Mr Mughal and his group in good faith, are yet more evidence to show just why Fiyaz Mughal and groups like Tell Mama and Faith Matters should be forcibly yanked from the public funding teat. They also show why, for the sake of probity, that Fiyaz Mughal’s groups need to be removed from their positions of undue influence in such diverse fields as the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and national government.

For too long Fiyaz Mughal and his organisations have taken vast amounts of our money for everything from a ‘care for Islamic converts’ programme to the hundreds of thousands of pounds handed to the Tell Mama organisation. For our cash we have got very little in return and these projects have ranged from useless vanity projects such as the converts programme, to dangerous, partisan and dishonest groups like Tell Mama. It really is high time that this stopped now and that this man’s troubling organisations were treated as they should be treated which is as persona non grata. It’s time to take the DCLG red carpet out from under Fiyaz Mughal’s feet. To this end I urge readers to contact their member of parliament and ask that funding for all of Fiyaz Mughal’s projects is immediately suspended and that groups like Tell Mama and Faith Matters be removed from those positions where they are exercising political and operational influence on the police and other public agencies.