Empty your pockets please – Quilliam needs financial support

In response to the parliamentary debate on Tuesday where government minister Damian Green confirmed the news that the Home Office would cease funding them at the end of this financial year (i.e. next month), the Quilliam Foundation has circulated a begging letter – sorry, press release.

Quilliam point out that they have never enjoyed the sort of generous state funding that some have supposed: “Figures provided by the government during the debate showed Quilliam has received less government money than was regularly reported … since 2008, Quilliam has received a total of only £2.7 million from the British government for all its work in the UK, Pakistan and elsewhere – far less than the ‘million pounds a year’ that Quilliam’s detractors have frequently alleged.”

Well, maths has never been my strong point, but if Quilliam had indeed received a million pounds a year over the past three years, that would amount to £3 million, would it not? Whereas Quilliam in fact received “only” £2.7 million during that period. Whether this is “far less than the ‘million pounds a year’ that Quilliam’s detractors have frequently alleged” you can make up your own mind.

Still, as it was, Ed and Maajid had to scrape by on a mere £900,000 a year. How did they ever manage? Here at the lavishly funded, luxurious offices from which we run Islamophobia Watch, we can only offer our sincere sympathies.

And we have every confidence that our readers will respond generously to Quilliam’s appeal for £150,000 to tide them over until they can find private sources of finance for their work.