At the parliamentary launch in 2017, the event was chaired by Stephen Kinnock, while speakers included Labour's Jeremy Corbyn, Wes Streeting, Naz Shah, Afzal Khan, Kate Green and the Liberal Democrat Lord Brian Paddick, as well as representatives from the NUS, Byline Media, Spinwatch and Hacked Off.
Other speakers included the barrister Hashi Mohammed, as the representative to Max Hill QC, Independent Reviewer of Terrorism, Dr Rimla Akhtar, Chair of the Muslim Women's Sports Foundation, and the Reverend Steven Saxby.
[16] MEND disputed the allegation and said that Andrew Gilligan had selectively quoted the comments made in reference to the importance of Muslims voting in the general election.
Shortly after the HJS report was published, the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims plus three other MPs pulled out of a House of Commons event with MEND.
The organisation stated that they unequivocally attest that hatred on the basis of religious, sexual, ethnic or gendered identity is categorically unacceptable and should be resisted wherever it is found.
[23] On 14 March 2024, Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, speaking in Parliament, said MEND was one of five organisations that would be assessed against the new UK Government definition of extremism.
[24] In 2014, MEND (formerly iENGAGE)'s work was commended as "best practice" in "Human Rights Promotion and Protection" in a World Economic Forum report entitled Why Care about Faith?.
[citation needed] Writing in The Parliament Magazine, Sajjad Karim stated that the EU could learn a lot from MEND’s work on counter-radicalisation through engagement.