BBC charity funded Islamist militants

A BBC charity funded the activities of Islamist militants linked to the July 7 bombing in Britain, a news report has said.

The BBC’s 'Children in Need' charity donated 20,000 pounds to the Leeds Community School, which funded the propaganda activities of the bombers of July 2005.

The disclosure was made by the BBC Two programme ‘Newsnight’, which was told by a former employee of the school that it received thousands of pounds from City Council and other sources.

The financial support was provided between 1999 and 2002 to the school, which funded and shared premises with an Islamic bookshop where the suicide bombers Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shezhad Tanweer regularly met, The Times newspaper said.

According to the report, Khan attempted to radicalise youths by showing propaganda films at the bookshop, a focal point at the time for young Muslims.

Martin Gilbertson, an IT technician who worked at the school and the Iqra centre next door, said that he had been concerned about the activities of Tanweer and Khan.

"It was like living with jihad on a daily basis," he was quoted as saying by the British daily. The Iqra centre was raided by police investigating the July bombings.

The school in Beeston also paid for adventure weekends, such as a rafting trip to North Wales a month before the London attacks. Tanweer and Khan went on the trip, along with Khalid Khaliq, who this year was jailed for terrorism offences.

"I’m incredibly concerned that we did make an award to Leeds Community School over nine years ago and any allegation that funding we’ve given to any project has been misused and not used to change the lives of disadvantaged children and young people makes me concerned and very sad," said David Ramsden, chief executive of Children in Need.