The Charity Commission has appointed an interim manager to investigate a religious charity embroiled in controversy over a social media post that appeared to praise the Taliban.
Dar ul Uloom Islamia Rizwia (Bralawai) has been the subject of a statutory inquiry by the regulator since November 2021.
The inquiry is looking into the trustees’ potential failure to ensure that policies and procedures relating to safeguarding have been implemented – and the conduct of some trustees and staff members on social media.
Today the commission announced the appointment of Virginia Henley of HCR Hewitsons as interim manager of the charity.
Henley will conduct a review of the charity’s governance and administration and make recommendations to the commission based on her findings.
Dar ul Uloom Islamia Rizwia (Bralawai) was set up to provide a place of worship, religious education and community services for the benefit of the local community of Small Heath, Birmingham.
The regulator initially looked into the charity in 2019 and found that safeguarding policies and procedures were not in place.
According to the commission, its trustees were issued with regulatory advice and “gave assurances that the educational centre would be closed and would not reopen until required improvements had been made”.
Those included training for trustees and for approved safeguarding policies and procedures to be developed by an independent professional advisor.
In November 2021, complaints about the social media activity of some trustees and staff resulted in a compliance visit, which found that the educational centre had reopened without meeting the commission’s requirements.