This mosque benefits from public subsidy so the public has a right to know!

FAMILIES URGE TRUSTEES 'TO BE } TRANSPARENT AND TELL US EXACTLY WHAT THEY'VE DONE AND ARE DOING NOW TO TACKLE EXTREMISM'

- JOHN SCHEERHOUT

TRUSTEES of Didsbury Mosque 'did not have a formal method of controlling' literature which contained 'possibly extremist messages.

They also 'did not submit' a report to the Charity Commission about alleged links to 'an act of terrorism' after it was reported that the Manchester Arena bomber prayed there.

That's according to documents obtained by the Manchester Evening News following a long freedom of information battle.

The mosque was also told to ensure anyone using its 'Sharia Council, which provides rulings and advice to Muslims, 'are aware no ruling which it makes is legally binding, while it was also criticised for failing to record the suspension and reinstatement of an imam photographed wearing army fatigues in Libya.

The revelations are in an 'action plan' drawn up for the mosque, a registered charity, by the Charity Commission some 16 months after the 2017 suicide bombing at Manchester Arena which claimed 22 innocent lives and left hundreds more seriously injured.

The Charity Commission initially refused to provide its 2018 action plan to the M.E.N. following an application made under freedom of information legislation in March 2023, arguing disclosure would have a 'prejudicial and chilling effect' on dialogue with mosque trustees and 'seriously undermine' confidence in correspondence it has with the mosque remaining private.

Only the first two pages of the 11-page action plan were made public at the subsequent Arena inquiry.

We took our case to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) arguing it was strongly in the public interest to release the 2018 action plan particularly following criticism in the public inquiry into the atrocity that mosque leaders had demonstrated 'wilful blindness' to extremism. During the watchdog's investigation the Charity Commission changed its position and agreed to release a redacted version of the action plan, which the ICO ordered the Charity Commission to release.