MEND: Group linked to anti-Semitic speakers

THE Muslim group that staged a rally in Parliament at which Jeremy Corbyn spoke has worrying links with extremism.

The organisation, Muslim Engagement and Development, claims it champions Muslim involvement in public and political life while campaigning against Islamophobia. But the Islamist group has been associated with a number of extremist statements, including links to speakers who have promoted jihad, anti-Semitism and homophobia. Officials and volunteers with Mend have also supported the killing of British troops in Iraq.

It is also claimed to want to stir up trouble over the ‘Trojan Horse’ plot four years ago when Ofsted inspectors uncovered a campaign by hardline Muslims to take over schools in Birmingham and alter their ‘character and ethos’. A report released last month OCT by the Henry Jackson Society security thinktank argued that Mend were ‘Islamists masquerading as civil libertarians’.

Mend was previously known as iEngage. Its boss Azad Ali, lost a libel case against the Daily Mail in January 2010 after he was described as a ‘hardline Islamic extremist who supports the killing of British and American soldiers in Iraq’.