Islamic charity that outed teacher in Batley cartoon row is rebuked by watchdog

From The Telegraph ( while I have brief wifi)

An Islamic charity has been formally rebuked by the watchdog for “inflaming tensions” and risking safety by naming the teacher at the centre of the Batley Grammar School blasphemy row.

Purpose of Life placed into the public domain the name of the teacher who showed a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed to his religious studies class earlier this year

At the time in March, Mohammad Sajad Hussain, Purpose of Life’s chief executive, accused the teacher of “terrorism” and “insulting Islam”. He added that the children’s charity would not work with the school again until the teacher was “permanently removed” from the school.

Free speech campaigners then complained to the Charity Commission accusing the group of “recklessly” placing the teacher in danger of “physical harm”. The teacher reportedly received death threats.

Following a lengthy investigation involving trustees, the regulator confirmed on Friday it has now issued Purpose of Life an official warning under section 75A of the 2011 Charities Act.

The formal notice says the commission “considers that a breach of trust and/or duty and/or misconduct and/or mismanagement has been committed in connection with the charity”.

Regulators said the charity’s open letter naming the teacher did not consider “foreseeable risk to the person’s safety” and “was written in such a way as to be likely to inflame existing tensions within the local community”. They also criticised the charity for publishing two tweets and a video that supported a political party and a political candidate and criticised another candidate.

The Charity Commission’s new letter to Purpose of Life demanded a series of actions to be taken . . .The Charity Commission threatened “further regulator action” may be taken if the breaches it identified are not remedied.

Purpose of Life, which eventually removed the teacher’s name from its online post after a fierce backlash over safety concerns, will have the regulator’s warning attached to its register entry for one year.