What are we trying to do?
The Community Benefit Society aims to promote racial harmony for the public benefit by promoting knowledge, mutual understanding and respect of the beliefs and practices of the different Abrahamic religious faiths: Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
How do we do this?
We provide a non-invasive, unaffiliated, ethical, transparent and internet-based software platform to encourage and provide a non-judgemental discussion forum for native Arabic language speakers in North Africa and the Middle East. It is particularly for those who follow or would like to know more about following the Messiah from any of the three faiths.
How long have we been doing this?
Since July 2001 we have been developing this platform with access through a website, Facebook and YouTube. The Community Benefit Society itself was formed in 2021. Before that it was a UK registered charitable limited company.
How large is the community?
Over 22 years it has grown to over 340,000 members of this community in more than 30 countries in the world. Though we focus on Arabic speakers in the Middle East and North Africa, and the vast majority of the community live in the area of the world, we have members from as far apart as Japan and the USA.
How are we governed?
We are governed like all Community Benefit Societies, with a committee elected annually from among the registered members according to our rules. The rules are registered with the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) where we are registered as a Community Benefit Society established pursuant to the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014.
How are we financed?
Historically we have been financed through gifts and donations from individuals and other non-profit organisations. We have no paid staff — all are volunteers and our rules do not allow community members to be paid.
We have been accepted as a charity for tax purposes by the HMRC in the UK and are recognised by them as a charitable company.