The Inter Faith Network
The Inter Faith Network for the United Kingdom was a charity in the United Kingdom which had the objects "to advance public knowledge and mutual understanding of the teachings, traditions and practices of the different faith communities in Britain including an awareness both of their distinctive features and their common ground and to promote good relations between persons of different faiths". Since 2001, the Inter Faith Network was funded in several millions of pounds by the British government, until its state funding was terminated in 2024 following multiple legal and regulatory complaints of harassment, bullying and malfeasance by IFN officials, and allegations of legitimising the influence of extremist groups. In 2025, the Inter Faith Network for the United Kingdom was re-founded under new management.
The Inter Faith Network drew on the pre-existing example of and every year listed on its website various inter-religious events which were in actuality organised, financed and run mainly by other institutions and groups unconnected to the IFN; and IFN officials participated in meetings hosted by the Church of England and Lambeth Palace with members of the British royal family and government officials.
In 2023, the Church Times reported the publication by the Inter Faith Network of and quoted Harriet Crabtree, IFN Executive Director, "This research project shows the richness and value of women's local inter faith initiatives...these initiatives make a significant contribution to inter faith understanding and cooperation, help women's voices be heard".
Peer-reviewed academic publications and newspaper articles record that over its history the Inter Faith Network was the subject of multiple legal challenges and complaints to government regulatory bodies for alleged religious discrimination, as well as widespread allegations of bullying and harassment by the IFN Executive Director, Harriet Crabtree, IFN Trustee, Guy Wilkinson, and other IFN officials against whistleblowers of malfeasance within the organisation. On 19 January 2024, Michael Gove, Secretary of State of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities announced the termination of taxpayer funding to the Inter Faith Network citing the UK government's "serious concerns" with the IFN and the "reputational risk" to the state.
Against the background of these controversies, including the expressed "anger" of officials at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities with the Inter Faith Network and its officers, the termination of government funding, as well as complaints by former IFN Trustees to the Charity Commission for England and Wales, on 7 February 2024 the IFN Board of Trustees announced its decision to move for closure of the organisation. On 22 February 2024, the Board of the Inter Faith Network confirmed its prior decision to close the charity following receipt of a letter from the Secretary of State that he would not reverse his termination of government funding, and concurrently Communities Minister, Felicity Buchan, said that while the government would continue supporting other charities that promote interfaith dialogue, they would not change their stance over funding to the IFN.
The government funding cut and closure decision of the Inter Faith Network caused its supporters to express dismay and criticism, and an article on the website states, "The timing of this ill-advised decision could not come at a worse time and it sends all the wrong signals about inter faith. I am so passionate about this that I have written to HM the King!" Interfaith Consultant for Liberal Judaism, Mark Solomon, commented, "It is disgusting that this is happening. Shame on the morally and spiritually bankrupt government that is inflicting such a grave and unnecessary injury on our fragile interfaith institutions, which are needed more than ever". A statement criticising the government decision was issued by UK Quaker interfaith activists which stated, "We, as Quakers in Britain, are angered by this act of political interference intended to harm the faith relations work of this tiny, yet disproportionately effective, organisation that is the nation’s most prominent interfaith instrument".
The offices of the Inter Faith Network finally closed on 30 April 2024, as reported on the organisation website and Twitter account. On 21 January 2025, the Inter Faith Network was dissolved as a company by Companies House, and on 11 February 2025 it was struck off as a charity by the Charity Commission for England and Wales.
In 2024, the Faith and Belief Forum and other former IFN Member organisations convened an ad hoc group, and the following year published a report which recommended that Inter Faith Week must continue in recognition of all that religious diversity contributes to public life in the UK, but needs to move "beyond the bubble" of those already involved.
On 16 January 2025, the Inter Faith Network for the United Kingdom was re-founded under new management, and incorporated as a charitable company by former IFN Trustees, interfaith academics and clergy of different religions, including those who had raised concerns about alleged abuse and malfeasance in the previous organisation. On 16 May 2025, the reincorporated Inter Faith Network acquired ownership of the trademarks of the dissolved charity.
Membership
The Inter Faith Network was a charity which had nearly 200 member bodies in affiliation. It was founded in 1987 by its first director, Brian Pearce; in 1990 Harriet Crabtree became deputy director, and in 2007 the sole executive director. Except for one brief term of office then resignation of a Scottish Anglican co-chair, for the entirety of the history of the organisation, the Inter Faith Network was led by a co-chair who was a Church of England bishop or senior clergyman who typically remained in post for years, together with a more frequently rotating non-Christian co-chair.From 2001, the IFN was funded in several millions of pounds by the British taxpayer, and had prominently among its affiliate organisations in membership the Muslim Council of Britain and The Islamic Foundation whose parent body is the South Asian Islamist political movement Jamaat-e-Islami, and Vishva Hindu Parishad, a far-right Hindu Nationalist group which is part of the Sangh Parivar network led by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Sam Westrop, Senior Fellow of the Gatestone Institute, wrote "By championing these Islamists as the 'voice' of British Islam, the Inter Faith Network falsely legitimizes these extremist groups, such as the Muslim Council of Britain, to be sincerely representative of British Muslims. A 2007 survey revealed, however, that 94% of British Muslims do not believe that the Muslim Council of Britain represents their views".
Political Lobbying
Andrew Dawson, professor of modern religion at Lancaster University, presents a critique of the Inter Faith Network's patronage and promotion of "faith community representatives", and the corrupting effect of money and power. He writes: "The politics and practice of religious diversity in the UK are best understood as closely associated with two other state orchestrated agendas: social order and service provision". Dawson charts how, since both 9/11 and cuts in public spending, Tony Blair’s New Labour opened a "policy window" for faith organisations which were skilful at navigating access to political opportunity structures both to lobby for their interests, and acquire material benefits for themselves, such as tendering for government contracts to deliver public services on the cheap. He states with specific reference to the IFN:"Whereas the most obvious of these organisational benefits come in the form of state-sponsored commissions, grants and subventions, the resources accrued through accessing political opportunity structures comprise a varied range of material goods and immaterial means ".
Amanda van Eck Duymaer van Twist, Deputy Director of INFORM writes from her academic study and qualitative research interviews with members of the Inter Faith Network that:
"IFN has encouraged a structure of self-appointed leaders within communities where that traditionally would not have been appropriate. Moreover, these leaders did not necessarily have credibility within their communities...IFN represents the politicization of faith communities".
Duymaer van Twist continues and reports "resentment that the IFN had become such an established institution, with strong government and Church of England support, that some began to see it as a 'gatekeeper' that could grant or withhold 'legitimacy' to religious groups by way of membership".
Amanda van Eck Duymaer van Twist cites a report, "The Interfaith Industry", on the Inter Faith Network and other groups, which was published by Sam Westrop of "Stand for Peace" in November 2013.. She writes that the report "attacked some of its former members, notably one of its Co-Chairs, Dr Manazir Ahsan , and other Executive Committee members for their links with organizations that it perceived to be extremist...and condemned the IFN's Director for not challenging this".
Legal Challenge
Dawson details the successful legal challenge to the Inter Faith Network by human rights law firm Bindmans LLP arising from the IFN's refusal in 2012 to admit to membership The Druid Network, which story was broken nationally by The Times newspaper. A multi-signature letter published on the case by clergy of different faiths in the Church Times states:"The rejection by the IFNUK of the lawfully recognised faith charity the Druid Network raises serious concerns about possible religious discrimination under the Equality Act 2010, which have been discussed in an expert legal statement published by the leading human-rights law firm Bindmans LLP...In particular, this activates questions related to Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 concerning the Public Sector Equality Duty of government and public bodies to consider issues of religious discrimination and exclusion that may arise when they decide to give the money of British taxpayers as public funding to interfaith and other groups".
The lawyer for the Inter Faith Network, Philip Kirkpatrick of Bates Wells and Braithwaite LLP, unsuccessfully attempted to argue in his Advice Note that "the purpose of the organisation...namely to 'foster or maintain good relations between persons of different religions or beliefs'" justified the refusal by the Inter Faith Network of the Druid Network membership application. Kirkpatrick tried to claim a religious exemption for the IFN from equalities and human rights legislation under Schedule 23 of the Equality Act 2010: "An example of this might be a decision by an interfaith organisation not to accept a membership application from a particular faith organisation if the admission to membership of the organisation could have the effect of leading to representatives of the bodies of major faith communities withdrawing from membership of that inter faith organisation". In response, John Halford of Bindmans LLP responded, "This argument is imaginative, but fundamentally bad...it conflates two very different things: an organisation's purpose and the ease with which it can be fulfilled...the IFN does not need to discriminate against Druids 'because of' its purposes or at all. Those purposes are not concerned with the relationship or position of any particular set of faiths. They are simply concerned with 'different faiths' in Britain".
Peter Colwell, deputy general secretary of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland writes of the tendency of interfaith bodies "to compete with each other and to make inflated claims of their own impact", while the CTBI Inter Faith Theological Advisory Group also addresses the politics of interfaith “gatekeepers” and blocking of admission to membership of the Inter Faith Network: "An argument that gives power over inclusion or exclusion to what can now be seen as the vested interests of existing dialogues where those dialogues have a political significance seems dangerous".