Brown agrees to investigate claim extremists received public funding

Andrew Sparrow and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 25 November 2009 13.55 GMT

Gordon Brown today agreed to investigate claims that two schools backed by the Islamist extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir have received money from the taxpayer.
The prime minister made the commitment after David Cameron cited the case in the Commons and claimed that it was evidence that the government "has not got a grip on the issue of Islamic extremism".
The Tories want to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir, a non-violent extremist group, although ministers have in the past insisted that the evidence does not justify the organisation being proscribed.

During prime minster's questions, Cameron said that two schools set up by the Islamic group ISF had secured £113,000 from the government. Some of the money had come from the Pathfinder fund set up to combat violent extremism, he said.
Cameron, who did not name the schools, said that ISF was "a front organisation for Hizb ut-Tahrir". Calling for a wider inquiry, he went on: "We have got a government that says it wants to prevent extremism, yet it is funding extremism."
Brown said he would look into "every detail" of the allegations, which Cameron said the Tories had raised in a letter to the schools minister a week ago.
But he also warned the Conservative leader to take care not to stigmatise Muslims.
"The vast majority of Muslims in this country are part of the law-abiding majority," Brown told Cameron.
"I do not want it to be said that people who are citizens of the Muslim faith are being held responsible for acts of terrorism."
Telling Cameron that he might "regret" some of the remarks he had made, Brown also said that he thought it was a matter of all-party consensus that organisations should only be banned on the basis of evidence that was "clearly proven" relating to advocating violence.
"That is the position that both parties accepted. That is the position we will continue to follow," Brown said.