Terror and how the Left hijacks charities

TODAY, on Pages 10 and 11, we publish a deeply disturbing investigation into the activities of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust – an organisation established 100 years ago to promote ‘ peace’ but which now bankrolls supporters of terrorism.

Rightly, the charity has been condemned f or giving £ 300,000 to Cage – the extremist Musli m group whi c h disgracefully blames MI5 f or t he radicalisation of Jihadi John and which, to universal outrage, described the Islamic State monster as ‘kind and gentle’.

But, as we reveal, the three grants made by the JRCT to the twisted, pro-Taliban Cage – which has supported a Who’s Who of international terrorists in recent years, and refuses to condemn the stoning of homosexuals – is the tip of the iceberg.

As recently as November, the JRCT paid a grant of almost £150,000 to Teach na Failte, an offshoot of the terrorist Irish National Liberation Army, which has murdered 120 people, including the Conservative MP Airey Neave, and opposed the peace process.

Teach na Failte is run by Eddie McGarrigle – who served ten years in jail for terrorist offences, including the attempted murder of a British soldier in 1990.

On its website, the organisation also describes the murderer and terrorist Eugene Kelly as a ‘prisoner of war’ – yet, incredibly, the Left-wing JRCT and its trustees, who include an ex-New Labour adviser, consider it a worthy cause.

Then there is the £60,000 given to the Muslim group JawaabUK, which has circulated tweets informing Muslims that ‘the (British) state has always been a racist colonial state’. Another £60,000 was handed to the Islamic Human Rights Committee – which supports both Iran and the Arab militant group Hezbollah.

As if that were not enough, we now learn JRCT has also given funding of £60,000 to the Media Standards Trust, the pressure group set up by that ‘ ubiquitous busybody’ Sir David Bell.

MST, of course, spawned Hacked Off – a self-appointed cabal of newspaper-hating zealots, priapic actors and small-town academics which campaigns to impose statutory regulation on the free Press.

(Bell, incidentally, is a trustee of the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation which has also f i nanced Hacked Off and is in ‘partnership’ with JRCT. How exquisitely incestuous.)

It is the same free Press they wish to shackle, remember, which this week exposed how Jihadi John’s family had exploited Britain’s benefits and asylum system and which has rightly shone a harsh spotlight on Cage’s vile views.

Without such newspaper investigations, these facts may never have emerged (the BBC, which has shamefully given Cage copious airtime to spread its poison, certainly wouldn’t have revealed them) and the JRCT could have avoided proper scrutiny over who it was funding.

This whole shabby affair provides a fascinating insight into how the Left hijacks wealthy charities so they provide the finance to promote its ideological objectives – then ruthlessly tries to silence anybody who disagrees.

Last night, the JRCT grudgingly said it would no longer be giving money to Cage, which it still insists had been seeking to ‘promote and protect human rights’.

The suspicion is that it did so only because it was under intense pressure from the Charity Commission, which has been investigating the grant and is due shortly to publish its findings. The Commission now needs to go much further and investigate the activities and funding of all the other groups like Cage.

As the Mail first asked last Saturday, if JRCT is happy to sponsor apologists for terrorism, can its charitable status really be justified?