ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

The Charity Commission has launched a formal investigation into the running of a Muslim organisation with alleged links to extremism.

The chief executive of Muslim charity Global Aid Trust (GAT), Rizwan Hussain, stepped down ahead of the broadcast of an undercover TV investigation which looked into whether the east London charity was promoting extremism.

Mr Hussain, who is also a television presenter for the Islam Channel and a barrister, told Third Sector magazine that he had left the charity "in connection with the documentary".

The Charity Commission was already examining concerns of a similar nature to those raised in the programme, and the undercover footage obtained by ITV's Exposure: Charities Behaving Badly documentary will be added to this.

The statutory inquiry will investigate the management and oversight by the trustees of the charity's events and the content of these.

GAT describes itself as an independent charity which aims to promote education among the under-privileged and to help orphans achieve their full potential.

In the programme, an undercover reporter, posing as a volunteer, is introduced to a GAT worker called Shaffiq Shabbar, who tells him of his admiration for late hate preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, who was believed to have inspired a string of terror attacks.

Mr Shabbar tells the reporter: "They spread loads of lies about him ... He's a scholar and basically he was imprisoned and after he came out of prison he started to incite hatred and telling the Western Muslims to bomb.

"He incited bombings basically. Bruv, he was a brilliant guy though."

The documentary also shows preacher Dawah Man speaking at an event in which he makes a series of anti-Semitic comments, telling those gathered: "America, European countries, whatever you call it, these countries are controlled by Zionists.

"If you look at the biggest bankers in the world, that fund these countries, they are Zionists, and Zionists run Israel. So we can safely say that at any time there was an American, or English or whatever, invasion of the Muslim lands, it is all a problem coming back to the Children of Israel."

In the programme, GAT said it "firmly condemns and reject comments" made by Mr Shabbar and the external speakers.

It adds: "We express our great regret at these incidents, which were the result of a process failure in the organisation."

It confirms that Mr Hussain left GAT in December 2014.

They claimed that a due diligence form regarding the content of what the speaker might say was not provided when he was booked and that the staff member responsible was suspended and later resigned.

The Charity Commission has also launched an investigation into Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (UK), which features in the programme.

A statutory inquiry will investigate comments made by an individual invited to speak at a charity event in the presence of the charity's beneficiaries and the management and oversight by the trustees of such events.

Michelle Russell, director of investigations, monitoring and enforcement at the Charity Commission, said: "We are disturbed at the footage we have seen - some of which is so serious it is clearly a matter for the police.

"Rightly the public will be concerned about the footage and the implications for public trust and confidence in these charities, and the potential impact on the charity sector more generally. We can reassure the public that we take these issues seriously."