Government to review award given to ‘interfaith’ charity after JC exposé - The Jewish Chronicle

The government is investigating the granting of a prestigious award to an interfaith charity following a report by the JC.

Building Bridges in Burnley (BBB) was given a King’s Award for Voluntary Service – the highest award given to volunteer groups across the UK and equivalent on an MBE – for “promoting harmony and understanding across all faiths and none” last year.

The charity, which was set up in 2001 following race riots in the Lancashire town, has been visited by Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York and was a partner organisation of Championship football club Burnley FC.

However, in February the JC revealed that officials at the charity have shared messages comparing Israel with Nazi Germany and images that evoked the blood libel.

Bea Foster (far left), Mozaquir Ali (second from left) receiving the King's Award for Voluntary Service on behalf of Building Bridges in Burnley. (Image: Afrasiab Anwar/X)[Missing Credit]

Bea Foster, listed as one of the organisation’s directors, organised a protest outside then-MP for Burnley Antony Higginbotham’s office against Israel’s war in Gaza, in which she used props of dead babies.

In a Facebook post in February 2024, she shared an image that appeared to equate Israel with Nazi Germany and apartheid-era South Africa.

Mozaquir Ali, reportedly the vice president of BBB and pictured with other officials from the charity receiving the KVSA last year, shared a photo on Facebook of the Statue of Liberty feeding a child draped in an Israeli flag and drinking a blood-filled bottle bearing a Palestinian flag.

He also shared an image of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu morphing into Adolf Hitler along with the caption “Adolf Netanyahu: Nazi Sionist” (Sic); a meme of the Israeli flag side by side with the Nazi flag in January 2024; and an image comparing Jewish prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp with a crowded checkpoint in the West Bank in December 2023.

Following the JC’s revelations, the government has confirmed that they are investigating the award of the KAVS to BBB.

Bea Foster (second from left) and Mozaquir Ali (blue tie) with Sarah Ferguson (centre with green headscarf) during her visit to Lancashire in 2023 (Image: Building Bridges in Burnley/X).[Missing Credit]

A spokesperson for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said that: “The promotion of antisemitic, extremist or terrorist views is obviously completely unacceptable, and we are urgently looking into the situation.”

They JC understands that the investigation is ongoing.

During their course of their partnership with Burnley FC, BBB held Iftar events at the club’s stadium, Turf Moor, in both 2023 and 2024. The first Iftar events ever held at the club.

However, Burnley FC told the JC that Building Bridges in Burnley was no longer an official partner of the club. “Our partnership concluded at the end of the 2023/24 season”, a spokesperson said.

Topics:

Burnley

Community relations

Charity