The Muslim advocacy group Cage is no longer being funded by either the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust or the Roddick Foundation, the Charity Commission has said.
The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust has spoken of coming under "intense regulatory pressure" to ensure it stopped funding.
In early March, the Charity Commission announced that it had opened compliance cases into two charities who had been funding Cage, an advocacy group which had come under criticism for seemingly defending Mohammed Emwazi, the man many media outlets have identified as the Islamic State militant nicknamed “Jihadi John”.
In a statement released on Friday, the Commission confirmed it had been in conversation with both charities and had received confirmation from them that they had ceased their funding of Cage.
“The Roddick Foundation provided all the assurances within 24 hours as requested, stating that it has not funded Cage since December 2012,” read a statement on the Charity Commission’s website.
“The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust did not provide all the assurances within 24 hours. It did confirm that it last made a grant payment to Cage in January 2014 and that no further payments would be made under the 2011 grant.”
Cage spokesperson, Amandla Thomas-Johnson responded, saying the group understood the decision of the two charities and thanked them for their funding in the past.
"We respect their decision. We thank them for their past support. Both of these charities have played a significant role in contributing to the development of Muslim civil society here in the UK.”
Thomas-Johnson said that Cage had “anticipated this decision since ever since William Shawcross, a leading member of the neo-conservative think tank, Henry Jackson Society, took over the Charity Commission" and that the decision was "just another manifestation of their objective of pursuing a Cold War on British Islam”.
The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust’s position
The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust released its own updated statement last Friday, to coincide with the Charity Commission.
In it, the Trust says: “As a Quaker trust, we reject all violence. We believe that to break cycles of violence, we need due legal process for all, including those suspected or accused of terrible crimes.”
The statement also explains that the Trust “has previously funded Cage to promote and protect human rights” and said that after “being put under intense regulatory pressure” had decided to “publicly confirm that we will not fund Cage either now or in the future".
The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust press office said that they would be making no further comment on the matter.
Civil Society News was unable to speak with the Roddick Foundation. However its accounts confirm that "CagePrisoners" has received no funding since 2012/13, when it was one of 13 organisations which received a portion of £462,000 worth of "human rights" grants.
