AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): British Parliament members have launched a new inquiry into the performance of the Home Office's scheme for securing mosques, Islamic centers, and Muslim religious schools; an action that comes after the publication of reports about lengthy delays, ambiguity in budget allocation, and the uncertainty of hundreds of vulnerable centers.
A group consisting of members of different parties in the British Parliament has asked mosques, Islamic centers, and Muslim religious schools in England to provide information and their experiences about the security situation of these centers and how they receive government aid for securing them. This group intends to identify the problems of the government scheme by examining this information. The deadline for submitting information has been set as November 22.
The British Home Office annually allocates up to 40 million pounds to help protect mosques, Muslim community centers, and religious schools against hate crimes. However, reports indicate that some centers have waited up to two years for their applications to be reviewed, and in some cases, after the rejection of their applications, they have not received a clear explanation of the reasons for the decision.
Andrew Picks, a Parliament member and one of the co-chairs of this parliamentary group, said that many mosques face problems in accessing security support or do not know through what path they should apply. Saeeda Warsi, another co-chair of this group, also stated that the goal of the inquiry is a comprehensive assessment of the government scheme and examining more effective ways to protect Muslims and worshippers.
Also, the Muslim Council of Britain, emphasizing that concerns about this scheme have a long history, called for serious reforms.
Some mosques have said that their applications were rejected based on regulations that were published only a few hours before the decision was made; in some cases, Islamic centers have also been forced to spend thousands of pounds of their public donations to cover security costs. This inquiry is set to provide the ground for examining the transparency of budget allocation, the number of accepted and rejected applications, and the duration of processing the cases.
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