CAMPAIGN TO STOP FUNDING HATE

To: Malcolm Speed
Chief Executive Officer
International Cricket Council

Dear Mr. Speed:

We at the Campaign to Stop Funding Hate (www.stopfundinghate.org) are writing to urge that the ICC not give any of the money it collects for tsunami relief to a religious charity with a dubious record. We are writing specifically because of the reports in the press that ICC plans to give the money it will raise through charity cricket matches to World Vision - a Christian Religious charity implicated in both an exclusionary world view as also in actively furthering American foreign policy.

The Campaign to Stop Funding Hate is a three year old group that has systematically documented and run campaigns to stem the flow of US dollars to violent Hindu nationalist groups in India such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh through its funding fronts in the US and UK - the India Development and Relief Fund and Sewa International. While our specific concerns are with India, we are part of a broader aspiration to a world free of bigotry.

In all parts of the world - whether it be the US or India, the UK or Sri Lanka - we have seen the rapid rise of religious/ethnic intolerance and violence. Cricket, as a sport, has stood above this rapid advance of religious/ethnic bigotry. We fail to understand the ICC's decision to invest in a religious charity when so many dedicated secular charities are doing tsunami relief and when all across the world, large non sectarian institutions have placed their faith in secular charities. In the UK, where you are headquartered, every bus and underground tube station has large signs indicating the Transport for London's (TFL) seriousness in raising money for tsunami victims as also the ease with which such money can be directed to secular charities, in this case to the Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC). Why then, should the ICC opt for a religious charity? For an organization that has as part of its history a determined stance against apartheid in South Africa, supporting any religious sectarian charity should automatically appear anti-thetical.

CSFH has for the last several years focused its attention on the violent Hindu nationalist movement, popularly referred to as the Hindutva movement in India because of the danger it poses to the national secular fabric of India. As against the national, institutions such as World Vision operate at a transnational level, and have, at the very least, a tarnished record of involvement with the US State in neo-colonial adventures and in promoting an exclusionary position on the question of faith. It is critical to note that in spite of its stated claim that it does not pressurize any recipient of aid to subscribe to Christianity, a cursory examination of its published documents tells a different story. For instance, its articles of incorporation state clearly that "[t]he primary, exclusive and only purpose for which this corporation is organized are religious ones... to disseminate, teach and preach the Gospel and teachings of Jesus Christ...". At CSFH, we are not against religious charities per se, but we do demand that organizations partnering with religious charities seek out ones that are non exclusionary in their world view and are not implicated in violence in any way. Our preliminary research into World Vision has prompted this letter and we could, if you need, provide additional details and refer you to those who have spent the last several decades researching the Christian Right in the United States.

Twenty two players of different ethnicities and faiths will play cricket to support the victims of the tsunami. That image alone should point to the error in your decision of investing in a charity that has an exclusionary ideology. We once again urge you not to risk cricket's reputation as a secular sport and misuse the faith placed in you by the millions of fans the world over and by the international cricketers who will play the relief matches. We demand that you place the money collected for tsunami relief in the hands of a reputed secular charity.

Sincerely,

The Campaign to Stop Funding Hate