The Charity Commission has announced that it has concluded its compliance investigation into Nottingham Islam Information Point and has issued an Official Warning to the charity and imposed a three-year disqualification on one of the trustees under section 181A of the Charities Act 2011.

The Commission opened a compliance case in November 2023 following concerns raised about the content of a sermon delivered on the charity’s premises by one of the trustees, Harun Abdur Rashid Holmes, which contained language such as “the hour will not begin until the Muslims fight the Jews and the Muslims will kill them until a Jew hides behind a rock or a tree”. His sermon also included statements on politics which, in the view of the Commission, could be interpreted as encouraging people not to vote or to disengage from the democratic process, calling on those present not to “busy yourselves with politics and voting”.

The Commission accepted that some of the content had been taken from a specific Hadith, a narration of historical events ascribed to the Prophet Muhammad:

“However, the sermon was given without the appropriate context to its source material and as such was inflammatory and divisive. There was no consideration given to how appropriate it would be to deliver such a sermon just six days after the events in Israel of 7 October 2023 … it showed [that] Mr Holmes lacked the good judgement expected of a trustee. Mr Holmes accepted that with hindsight the Hadith was sensitive, and he did not give sufficient context to it.”

Moreover, his sermon did not further the charity’s purposes, including that of providing relief to those in need, and the Commission concluded that it had not been in the charity’s best interests, to the extent that it had amounted to misconduct and/or mismanagement. Therefore, Mr Holmes had not acted in accordance with his trustee duties, despite the charity having been given previous guidance when he was the charity’s Chair – and his failure to comply with regulatory advice had amounted to misconduct and/or mismanagement.

In addition to the suspension of Mr Homes, the Commission also issued Nottingham Islam Information Point with a formal warning, because the whole trustee Board had a collective responsibility to have effective policies in place to manage the charity, including policies related to speakers. The Official Warning set out actions to improve the charity’s governance, which include:

• ensuring that all activity at the charity contributes to its purposes;
• creating, implementing and adhering to robust and suitable policies on topics including social media use and speakers; and
• ensuring that all current and future trustees understand their legal duties as set out in the Commission’s guidance.

Comment

Under the Charities Acts, the primary duties of trustees are to act in the charity’s best interests, to manage the charity’s resources responsibly, and to act with reasonable care and skill. Calling on Muslims to break the criminal law could hardly be in accordance with the third of these.