Abdul Durrant started the Justice for Cleaners movement in London by attending the HSBC AGM and challenging the chairman to accept their moral responsibilities and pay cleaners a living wage. In 2002, HDG Mansur launched the HSBC Amanah Global Properties Income Fund to facilitate sharia compliant investments, and the company seeks investments from Muslim investors by claiming that they are sharia compliant. Yet this claim is challenged by US unions and the multi-faith community who say that the poverty wages and poor treatment of cleaners is incompatible with HDG Mansur's claims to be an ethical company and be sharia compliant.

Senior Imams, including Sheikh Abdool Khan who will take part in tomorrow's demonstration, are calling for the company to treat their workers with respect and pay their cleaners a living wage. The demonstration will also be joined by members from Unite, the UK's largest union and the union leading the Justice for Cleaners campaign in the UK.

Sheikh Khan says: "We wish that companies such as HDG Mansur who hire companies that violate basic labour rights should be scrutinised thoroughly before they are accepted as sharia compliant. To blindly sign them off as sharia compliant would do disservice to the spirit of Islamic sharia, not to mention the disservice to poor helpless janitors and their families. The sharia wants us to make maximum profits in whatever we do but with the condition that no one is harmed in the process."

ENDS

For further information, please contact Paul Davies, Unite lead organiser on 07799 114241