Widespread distrust of the Home Office’s counter-extremism strategy by British Muslims has been cited as one of the obstacles to mosques using a government scheme to protect places of worship from hate crime, after figures showed just 22 received funding last year. While Muslim representatives do not criticise government funding to Jewish counterparts, they are pressing for changes to a wider scheme funding security for mosques, churches and temples at a time when most religious hate crime – 52% of all incidents last year – is aimed at Muslims. “Earlier this year the home secretary announced he had doubled funding for next year’s places of worship protective security to £1.6m. Then we were told that only 75% of the funding will be given,” he said, referring to how the mosque considered sourcing CCTV equipment. “The Home Office funding is not straightfroward to apply for.

Source: The Guardian June 30, 2019 16:51 UTC