A charity praised by Gordon Brown has paid hundreds of thousands of pounds supposedly raised for “disaster relief” to two organisations allegedly linked to terrorist groups.

Muslim Aid, which has been given at least £830,000 of public money, diverted substantial sums to Islamist organisations, possibly in contravention of its charitable status. It has received grants from the Department for International Development, the EU and London councils.

The charity, based at the hardline East London mosque, has close links to the Islamic Forum of Europe, a fundamentalist group accused by a Labour minister of infiltrating his party.

Muslim Aid raised more than £24 million last year. It says its charitable objectives, which it is legally required to follow, are “to relieve … all those who are in need … as a result of natural disasters” and “to relieve those who are refugees fleeing from war.”

Andrew Gilligan (who else?) in the Daily Telegraph, 2 March 2010

See also ENGAGE, who point out that Muslim Aid would appear to have good grounds for taking legal action against the Telegraph over this piece of libellous nonsense.