Many religious charities do fantastic work.
But many others fail to provide a public benefit and some cause harm.
It's time to end religious privilege in charity law.
Charity work carried out by people of all faiths and none should be recognised and celebrated. Much of the work of religious charities, such as helping the poor, is secular in nature and beneficial to society.
But there are religious organisations which exploit the privileged status of religion in charity law to conduct activities that do not fulfil a genuine public benefit, and only serve to further religious ideology.
In the worst cases, religious charities may harm society and individuals.
Registered charities must serve a purpose recognised as "charitable". Charity laws specify a list of "charitable purposes," one of which is "the advancement of religion".
Charities must also demonstrate that they provide a genuine public benefit. But guidelines are vague on what constitutes a public benefit, particular in relation to religious activities. There is still an assumption in the charity system that religion is inherently beneficial. This view is not supported by evidence and implies those without a religion are somehow less moral or charitable.
The inclusion of the advancement of religion within charitable purposes gives religion a privileged position in the charity sector. It enables religious organisations to acquire all the benefits of charitable status, including tax relief, gift aid and public respectability, simply by "advancing religion".
It also includes religious organisations that cause harm to society. This includes charities which facilitate religious genital cutting, support the non-stun slaughter industry, and promote extremism, hatred and intolerance of other people.
The NSS believes all charities, religious or not, should be held to equally high standards. That's why we campaign for "the advancement of religion" to be removed from the list of charitable purposes, and for religious charities to be held to the same equality laws as all other charities.
Take action!
1. Write to your MP
Tell your MP it's time for "the advancement of religion" to be removed as a charitable purpose. Enter your postcode below to find your MP and send a letter to them.
2. Share your story
Tell us why you support this campaign, and how you are personally affected by the issue. You can also let us know if you would like assistance with a particular issue.
3. Join us
Become a member of the National Secular Society today! Together, we can separate religion and state for greater freedom and fairness.
Latest updates
Over 12,000 charities exist only to promote religion, NSS reveals
Posted: Mon, 18 Mar 2019 07:07
Over 12,000 charities exist solely to promote religion with some using public money to promote extremism and harmful practices, a new National Secular Society report has revealed.
The NSS's report, For the public benefit?, calls for the advancement of religion to be removed from the list of charitable purposes.
The Charities Act of 2011 gives religious organisations the chance to become charities on the grounds of advancing religion alone. Organisations that have charitable status receive tax breaks and state recognition that their work is serving a public benefit.
The NSS's report highlights examples of registered charities which promote activities including 'gay conversion therapy', infant circumcision and non-stun animal slaughter.
Charities such as Core Issues Trust and Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries have promoted the practice of trying to change LGBT+ people's sexual orientation.
The Initiation Society, which trains people to cut babies' genitals for non-medical reasons, and HMC UK, which promotes the non-stun slaughter of animals for halal meat, are also registered charities.
The report also highlights many large, well-known and wealthy charities whose sole purpose is to advance religion. Over 25% of religious charities with an annual income of over £10m list no objectives apart from religious activities.
Some religious charities also promote political ideas, including extremist ones. For example the Islamic Research Foundation International (IRFI), which finances Peace TV – a channel that has been banned in Bangladesh over concerns that it incites terrorism – is a registered charity. One of IRFI's trustees, Dr Zakir Naik, was denied entry to the UK in 2010.
The Charity Commission, which regulates charities in England and Wales, states that charities can never have a political purpose. Its parallel organisation in Scotland, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, has a similar restriction.
In response to the report the NSS has written to the charities minister Mims Davies to call for the removal of the advancement of religion as a charitable purpose.
NSS chief executive Stephen Evans wrote: "The benefits provided by most of the 13 charitable purposes set out in the Charities Act are clear. Relieving poverty, promoting good health, saving lives and protecting the environment are undeniably in the public interest.
"But the benefit to the public of advancing a religion is far more contestable and is based on the outdated presumption that religion is inherently a good thing.
"The rise of religious fundamentalism has demonstrated how religion can exacerbate tension, division, segregation and conflict in Britain. As such, there is a clear need now to consider whether the advancement of religion should be regarded as an inherent public good, deserving of the status of a charitable purpose."
Mr Evans said the NSS's proposed reform would require religious charities "to justify their charitable status in exactly the same way that secular organisations must do". The report explicitly acknowledges that many religious charities do good work.
Mr Evans added that the current rules were incongruous with the fact that over half of British adults today do not identify with a religion.
Commenting on the report, Mr Evans said:
"Charities cannot take their privileged place in society for granted. They must show they deserve it. Too many faith-based charities are causing harm at the expense of the taxpayer. Tax breaks are allowing these organisations, under the guise of 'charity', to facilitate harmful activities that do not align with British values and opinion.
"Under our proposed reforms, organisations that serve no charitable purpose aside from advancing a religion would no longer be able to be charities, meaning that they would have to pay tax like any other non-charitable organisation.
"This change is overdue and in the public interest. It would help to restore public confidence in the charity system, restore money to the public purse, relieve the burden on charity regulators and give religious organisations greater independence from the state.
"Advancing religion is not an unqualified good. In some cases it has no public benefit and in others it is actively harmful. Religious organisations that wish to be registered as charities should be required to demonstrate that they serve a genuine public benefit under another charitable heading, for example because they alleviate poverty."
A Charity Commission spokeswoman told The Observer: "We are aware of the National Secular Society's report on charity and will review it carefully. As a general principle: like all charities, a small proportion of religious charities are misused by others and used in ways the public would not expect. The commission deals with these issues robustly where they arise."
NSS questions charity links to Islamic TV channel under investigation
Posted: Fri, 23 Nov 2018 12:01
The National Secular Society has questioned why an Islamic preacher who has praised Osama Bin Laden and said all Muslims "should be terrorists" is a trustee of a registered charity.
Dr Zakir Naik is a trustee of the Islamic Research Foundation International (IRFI), a charity registered in England which finances the Islamic TV channel Peace TV.
This week it was reported that the UK's communications regulator Ofcom is pursuing six separate investigations into Peace TV over concerns that it has breached the broadcasting code.
Naik, who launched IRFI in 2006 and was banned from entering Britain in 2010, is listed on Peace TV's website as its leading speaker.
Ofcom said it is pursuing six separate investigations into Peace TV for potential breaches of broadcasting rules designed to protect audiences from "hate speech, offence and the incitement of crime".
The investigations relate to shows with titles including Media and Islam — War or Peace? and Valley of the Homosexuals.
Peace TV claims to have 200m viewers around the world. Its English and Urdu channels can be viewed via Sky in the UK, despite being officially banned in India and Bangladesh.
The NSS is now planning to write to the Charity Commission over IRFI's status.
NSS campaigns officer Megan Manson said: "If IRFI is promoting extremism through its funding of Peace TV, the Charity Commission must hold it to account. We'll be writing to the commission urging it to do so.
"We must also ask why Zakir Naik is allowed to act as a trustee for IRFI. He has been banned from entering the UK over security concerns. How can he be considered a suitable trustee for a UK charity?"
Ofcom has a statutory duty to ensure any person holding a broadcast licence is "fit and proper".
The regulator has previously reprimanded Peace TV twice for breaching its standards. In 2012 Naik said he "tended to agree" that Muslims should be executed if they leave Islam and tried to proselytise a different religion "against Islam".
In 2016 the channel was fined £65,000 after another speaker, Dr Israr Ahmad, used terms such as "like a cancer", "evil genius", "their poison" and "cursed people" to describe Jews.
Other speakers who broadcast on Peace TV include Bilal Philips, who the US has named as a co-conspirator in the 9/11 attacks. Hussain Ye, a cleric who claimed a "group of Jews" were "having a party" to celebrate 9/11, has also spoken on the channel.
A report by the Henry Jackson Society on Islamic broadcasting highlighted that while Ofcom had revoked the licences of other channels, including the Iranian-controlled Press TV in 2012, it had not similarly taken Peace TV off the air.
The report's author, research fellow Emma Webb, said not revoking Peace TV's licence was a "material failure by Ofcom to exercise its statutory authority."
She added: "It is obvious that an individual who is banned from entering the country is unfit to hold a broadcasting licence."
Ofcom is also investigating another Islamic TV channel, Islam Channel, over concerns that it has promoted conspiracy theories and anti-LGBT propaganda.
Last week the channel broadcast a film saying the British government's "Islamophobia . . . treats all Muslims as criminal" and claiming a student's home was "raided over a word googled for a worksheet". The film's producers, the Islamic lobby group Muslim Engagement and Development, later admitted there was no basis for the claim.
In February the channel aired a debate on relationships and sex education (RSE) in which the cleric Suliman Gani, said such lessons were "about the agenda of including lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people in the education system" to "indoctrinate" children from Muslim backgrounds to "question their own sexuality". All four presenters agreed that RSE in schools is undesirable.
The channel was previously investigated by Ofcom in 2010 after it showed presenters encouraging violence against women and condoning rape.
In one programme the presenter said "it shouldn't be such a big problem where the man feels he has to force himself upon the woman".
In another the presenter advocated hitting a woman with "a stick" to "make her feel that you are not happy with her".
The regulator found the channel in breach of its code but did not impose a fine.
Islam Channel's presenters have also included preacher Haitham al-Haddad, who has expressed support for child marriage, female genital mutilation and stoning people to death for adultery.
An investigation by the Sunday Times revealed that the channel is funded by the overseas arm of Al-Shiddi Group, a company linked to the Saudi royal family. Islam Channel responded with a statement on its Facebook page calling the investigation "fake news".
Government research in 2008 found that Islam Channel reaches 59% of British Muslims. The station claims it has one million viewers daily.
Megan Manson commented: "Any channel that continually breaches broadcasting codes, despite repeated warnings and penalties, should lose its licence."
Image: Dr Zakir Naik, via Wikimedia Commons, © Maapu [CC BY-2.0]
