Scottish Sunday: Opinion & Debate: Opinion & Debate Damned for trying to do some good GUEST VOCALS: Osama Saeed on Islamophobia We officially launched the Scottish-Islamic Foundation this week, with warm words of encouragement and congratulation from three of the country's four main party leaders and the head of the Catholic Church for what may well be the most innovative, ambitious and forward-looking programme ever laid out by a Scottish Muslim organisation. At the same time, we were baffled by a briefing put out by the gloriously named Centre for Social Cohesion, warning people against us. They don't have as wide a remit as their name suggests: a quick scan of their website shows almost everything is on the topic of Islam and Muslims, and very few escape their wrath. Their "research" was, in reality, nothing more than a quick Google job, and a negatively screened one at that. The tactic of these kinds of hatchet jobs, which emanate from London, is to smear by association. It's a modern-day McCarthyism. We're a new body with no links to anyone outside of Scotland. Among our objectives are the furtherance of human rights and freedom at home and in the Muslim world. These right-wing bodies, though, say we're lying about this, that we hate democracy. Some even say this lying is part of our faith, which really is the language of Islamophobia. They say we're promoting a form of Islam that separates Muslims from wider society, but then they rail against the political connections we have and the influence we apparently wield. Which is it? My own brief research on the Centre for Social Cohesion found they have a neocon agenda, and their director, Douglas Murray, indeed wrote a book entitled Neoconservatism: Why We Need It. He told the Pim Fortuyn Memorial Conference in 2006: "Conditions for Muslims in Europe must be made harder across the board." Fortuyn was famous for saying Islam was "a backward culture" and that he was "in favor of a cold war with Islam". The Centre for Social Cohesion shares a building with Policy Exchange, another right-wing "think tank." Last year, Policy Exchange was subject to a Newsnight investigation which claimed to have uncovered evidence they had forged receipts of extremist literature they said they purchased from British mosques. Its head, Dean Godson, said he would sue the BBC. We are all still waiting. In conclusion, the Scottish-Islamic Foundation has faced baseless allegations and Islamophobic attacks from right-wing organizations that are determined to smear our organization and hinder our efforts to promote understanding, dialogue, and social cohesion. We will not be deterred. Our objectives remain steadfast in the pursuit of human rights and freedom at home and in the Muslim world. We will continue our work in Scotland, building bridges and fostering a stronger, more inclusive society.