put into liquidation on 9 April 2021. The same day, Nawaz posted on Twitter: "Due to the hardship of maintaining a non-profit during COVID lockdowns, we took the tough decision to close Quilliam down for good. This was finalised today. A huge thank you to all those who supported us over the years. We are now looking forward to a new post-covid future". Funding When Quilliam launched in 2007, the Home Office provided it with £674,608 of funding. In January 2009, The Times published an article claiming that Quilliam had received almost £1 million from the British government. The article also said that some "members of the Government and the Opposition" had questioned the wisdom of "relying too heavily on a relatively unknown organisation … to counter extremism". From 2011 onwards, Quilliam received no government, i.e. "public", funding. In the BBC programme HARDtalk, Nawaz explained that "the reason it was cut was because we disagreed at the time with the direction the government was headed. Now that the strategy has changed, and the policy of government has changed, what we haven't done is revitalize those funding relationships; but rather now we're 100% privately funded, which I'm happy with because of course it allows me to do the work without having to face the questions about which government is funding you and whether we're pursuing a government line or not." With the sudden cut in 2011, Quilliam operated at a loss that year. According to its political liaison officer, Jonathan Russell, the removal of public funding has been to Quilliam's advantage, as "it can remain ideas-focused, non-partisan and continue its own pursuits." In 2012, the foundation received $75,000 from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, which funds the David Horowitz Freedom Center. Quilliam also won a grant of over $1 million from the John Templeton Foundation. The organisation also received £35,000 from banker and current BBC chairman, Richard Sharp via his charity, the Sharp Foundation. When asked why he did this, Sharp said he was impressed by Quilliam's "efforts to combat radicalism and extremism". Controversies Criticism of its tactics Despite Quilliam's claims to oppose extremism of any kind, it had numerous critics. According to Alex MacDonald in Middle East Eye, the organisation was "regularly accused [...] of authoritarianism as well as targeting Muslim groups across the UK and tarring them with the "extremist" label with little evidence." In October 2009, The