The Charity Commission has found misconduct and/or mismanagement
by the trustees of Islamic Research Foundation International
(IRFI). This includes their decision to continue to fund Peace TV
channels despite several breaches of Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code.
IRFI was registered in 2007, with the aim of advancing the faith
and religious practices of Islam. Its principal focus and
expenditure had been to support Peace TV channels.
The Commission opened an inquiry into IRFI in April 2020, after
engagement with the trustees about the charity’s governance and
their report of a serious incident regarding the media regulator
Ofcom’s investigation into Peace TV channels.
Ofcom’s investigation found that since 2009, Peace TV channels
repeatedly broadcast programmes that breached the Ofcom
Broadcasting Code. This included programmes that incited violence
and murder, and programmes containing hate speech and abusive
treatment.
The inquiry found that the trustees mismanaged the charity and
did not act in its best interests. This included their decision
to continue funding for Peace TV.
The inquiry also concluded that the trustees repeatedly failed to
consider changes or alternatives for applying charitable funds
and did not learn any lessons, following Ofcom’s adverse
findings.
Between 2015 and 2020, 96% of the charity’s expenditure,
amounting to around £3.6million, was granted to Universal
Broadcasting Company, the parent company of the Peace TV
channels’ two licence holders. Some of the charity’s trustees had
been directors of companies within this group structure whilst
also acting as trustees of the charity. The inquiry saw no
evidence that conflicts of interest were appropriately identified
and managed.
Prior to the inquiry opening, the Commission disqualified by
Order the charity’s founder and one of its trustees, Dr Zakir
Naik, from acting as a trustee and from holding senior management
functions in any charity in England and Wales. This was appealed
to the Charity Tribunal which ruled in its decision of 4 December
2020 that he should be disqualified for 7.5 years.
In July 2020, the Commission appointed an interim manager to take
over the management and administration of the charity to the
exclusion of its trustees and to make a determination as to the
charity’s viability. The interim manager concluded that the
charity was no longer viable. The Commission issued an order to
direct the interim manager to wind-up the charity, which was
removed from the register on 11 May 2022. The charity’s remaining
funds of £57,950 have been transferred to three charities with
similar objects.
Tim Hopkins, Assistant Director, Investigations and Inquiries at
the Charity Commission, said:
This charity was mismanaged by its trustees, including through
their failure to manage the charity’s relationship with Peace TV
channels following Ofcom’s findings. These and other repeated
governance failures rendered the charity unviable, and the
Commission’s intervention has secured its dissolution.
As part of our intervention into this charity we determined that
Dr Naik’s conduct makes him unfit to act as a trustee or hold
senior management positions in any charity in England and Wales.
Our order protects charities by prohibiting him from acting.
