http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4003/uk-charity-commission-interpal
Since the time that the Charity Commission chairman promised to punish groups which promote extremism, Interpal has nevertheless organized a number of events that once again, demonstrate that extremist organizations continue with impunity to abuse their charitable status.
On 12 September, William Shawcross, chairman of Britain’s Charity Commission, addressed a crowd of leading experts and representatives from the British charitable and financial sectors, and announced that:
We are stepping up our work to prevent and tackle terrorist abuse of charities. The misuse of charities for terrorist purposes represents a despicable inversion of everything charity stands for and we will fight that without quarter. And we have put out very clear guidance to charities about extremist and controversial speakers. It is unacceptable for charities to promote the views of individuals who promote violence and terrorism.
We should welcome, then, the promise by Shawcross that pro-terror organizations will no longer be free to employ the moral monopoly afforded by charitable status to shroud their extremist activities.
Unfortunately, however, charities accused of extremism do not appear to be concerned by any of the proposed changes. Interpal, for example, a leading British charity supported by a number of British politicians and cabinet members, is, in the United States, designated a terrorist organization. A comprehensive profile of Interpal, written by this author and published by the Gatestone Institute in January 2013, examined the charity’s links to terrorist groups as well as its trustees and staff’s expressed support for extremist ideas.