Lifestyle Website for Muslim Teens is Covertly Funded by the British Home Office

The British Muslim online lifestyle platform, SuperSisters, is now up against the widespread suspicion that it was purposely designed to promote a state-approved notion of the Islamic faith with the potential to track its target audience of teenaged British Muslim girls, writes NOSHEEN IQBAL.

A Muslim online lifestyle platform targeting British teenagers –SuperSisters – is covertly funded by the Home Office’s counter-extremism programme, the Observer has learned.

The revelation about funding of the project has led to a row between its owners, a former Muslim employee and its Muslim audience.

SuperSisters was built in 2015 by J-Go Media, a company of nine staff members from east London that describes itself as “a not-for-profit community group” and has two decades of experience of engaging with Muslim communities in East London.

SuperSisters is promoted as a “global platform for young Muslimahs in East London to share and create inspiring and empowering content.”

But after realizing that recent funding for the project was coming from Building a Stronger Britain Together (BSBT), an arm of the government’s counter-extremism strategy, readers expressed anger and accused its directors of betraying the Muslim community.

SuperSisters is left battling the widespread suspicion that it was purposely designed to promote a state-approved notion of the Islamic faith with the potential to track its target audience of British Muslim girls aged 13 to 19.

One reader, Aeysh Ahmed, wrote on Instagram: “I am actually shocked… it’s deeply problematic that non-Muslims feel they have the right to define what our unified identity is.”

Another user, @the_hybrid_life, said: “This is truly shocking and disturbing and feels entirely like a violation.”

[Courtesy: https://www.theguardian.com/]