UK Govt. doles out a million pounds to anti-extremist think tank

London, Jan.20 (ANI): The Gordon Brown Government has given a million pounds to an anti-extremist think-tank, despite reservations expressed by some.

The Quilliam Foundation is a counter-extremism think-tank set up nine months ago by Ed Husain, a best selling author, and Maajid Nawaz, a former political prisoner in Egypt - as part of the Government's strategy to combat the radicalisation of British Muslims.According to The Times, the scale of the funding has aroused concerns that the Government is relying too heavily on a relatively unknown organisation in its desperation to counter extremism.

The foundation has 18 full-time staff and pays about 110,000 pounds a year to rent offices at one of Central London's most prestigious addresses, which, for security reasons, have no name plate or sign outside.

The paper says that the offices are expensively furnished with state-of-the-art computers and plasma screen televisions.

Husain and Nawaz are believed to be receiving salaries of about 85,000 pounds each a year.

Husain, 34, and Nawaz, 31, have come a long way since their days as members of the radical Islamic political group Hizb ut-Tahrir.

The duo travel the world to lecture on the threat of Islamist ideology.

Husain claims that Islamism was an ideology that could be defeated only by those who were once a part of it.

The Quilliam Foundation says that it is working to tackle the extreme Islamist ideology coming out of mosques, universities and madrassas in countries such as Syria and Pakistan.

It also advises police and security agencies on counter-extremism methods and is to release its findings next month on an inquiry into British mosques, followed by the publication of an investigation into Islamic radicalisation in prisons. (ANI)