Row over funding for controversial Islam debate

18 February 2008

By Ted Jeory

ted.jeory@archant.co.uk

FURY has erupted after it emerged that Tower Hamlets council was proposing to fund a debate involving the British chairman of an Islamist organisation banned throughout much of the world.

The East London Advertiser discovered that Town Hall chiefs were planning to subsidise up to £19,000 for a public meeting with Dr Abdul Wahid, the head of the radical Hizb ut-Tahrir organisation, which wants to create a worldwide Islamic state.

He was due to share a platform with prominent community leaders, including Labour peer Lord Ahmed, at the London Muslim centre in Whitechapel later this month.

The event is one of a series of debates being organised by the Cordoba Foundation and funded by Tower Hamlets council as part of its efforts to tackle extremism.

Town Hall officers, including equalities boss Michael Keating were aware of Dr Wahid's invitation before signing the funding cheque.

They initially told the Advertiser that the event would go ahead in the name of 'free speech.'

It was only when the paper asked whether public money would ever be used to allow the British National Party a platform that alarm bells sounded.

Council leader Denise Jones said: "Officers made a mistake.

"If they'd come to me for my permission, I would've said 'absolutely no way'.

"What the Cordoba Foundation is trying to do is a good thing. Young people need to debate issues.

"But there's no way anyone in the Labour party would want to give Hizb ut-Tahrir a platform with public money."

But Tory Opposition councillor Tim Archer branded the council's initial decision to fund Dr Wahid's presence as "abhorrent."

Hizb-ut Tahrir, has called for an end to democracy, the establishment of an Islamic state, or caliphate, and the imposition of Sharia law.

It has been banned throughout most of the Arab world over fears about the alleged links between some of its supporters and terrorism.