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July 15, 2006

UK: Foreign Office Funded Islamist's Trip To Turkey

Following on from our last article, where it was revealed that the UK Foreign Office's "Islamic affairs adviser", Mockbul Ali, supported the entry of a Bangladeshi war-criminal and anti-Western Islamist into Britain, the Foreign Office is involved in a similar scandal.

This time, it has paid for the airfare and accommodation of Yusuf Qaradawi to travel to a conference in Turkey, states the Daily Mail. Qaradawi is not a citizen of Britain, he certainly does not represent British interests, but UK taxpayers have had to pay to send him and his wife to travel from Qatar to Turkey, and to stay in a five star hotel, and then to return to Qatar.

The conference on Islam was held earlier this month. The Foreign Office confirmed that it paid for Qaradawi as part of its "support" for the conference in Istanbul. At the conference, 80-year old Qaradawi (who is banned from entering the US) was met by Frances Guy, a senior civil servant at the FCO.

A leaked memo from last July reveals that some diplomats in the Foreign Office wanted to promote links with Qaradawi, whom they described as "a highly respected Islamic scholar."

So much for the governments commitment to tackling extremism. Qaradawi has openly supported suicide bombings against civilians in Israel, and has said that homosexuals should be thrown from cliffs. The 80-year old Egyptian-born cleric, who lives in Qatar, is the spiritual adviser for the website "Islam Online", and is also said to be the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Daily Mail notes that two years ago, Tony Blair said: "Let me make it absolutely clear. We want nothing to do with people who support suicide bombers in Palestine, or elsewhere or support terrorism."

And last week, on July 6, he said in parliament: "If we want to defeat extremism, we have to defeat its ideas."

Not only Qaradawi was subsidised by the FCO - 180 other Muslim leaders from various Middle East locations were paid to travel to the conference, which was held in the Ceylan InterContinental Hotel. And UK taxpayers have to foot the bill, which is said to come to 300,000 pounds ($550,863).

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at July 15, 2006 11:10 AM

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