"Choosing Our Friends Wisely" report by Policy Exchange

With reference to the recent report, Choosing Our Friends Wisely, published by Policy Exchange, we do not recognise the description of our institution. No one from Policy Exchange contacted or visited us, or gave us any opportunity to provide the authors of the report accurate information about us. 

As we have clarified many times before, the Islamic Foundation is a completely independent body and neither has any link to the Jama‘at-i-Islami nor does it endorse the political agenda of any Islamic group. For over three decades, we have actively worked to relate our faith to our British context in a way that is engaged and integrationist.

Dr Manazir Ahsan, Director General of the Islamic Foundation, remarked that, “We have always supported initiatives that undermine violent extremism, and we have publicly, repeatedly and unconditionally condemned violent extremism.” He added that, “Prevention must be part of our long term strategy and there is an urgent need to build a wide coalition against the promotion of violence in the name of Islam. I fear that narrowing down engagement with Muslim communities will prove counterproductive to furthering the ‘Prevent’ agenda. Anyone who supports the rule of law, upholds democratic politics, and rejects violence should be considered a valued ally in this pursuit.”