{"id":3038,"date":"2008-02-07T13:32:23","date_gmt":"2008-02-07T13:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2008\/02\/07\/row-over-preacher-visa-snub\/"},"modified":"2016-01-06T17:31:23","modified_gmt":"2016-01-06T17:31:23","slug":"row-over-preacher-visa-snub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2008\/02\/07\/row-over-preacher-visa-snub\/","title":{"rendered":"Row over preacher visa snub"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"PRIME Minister Gordon Brown has evoked the fury of a number of Muslim groups after he banned a Muslim preacher from entering Britain.<\/strong> <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Yusuf al-Qaradawi, 81, had been hoping to come to London to receive medical treatment but it is understood that the Prime Minister has blocked his visa. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The Middle East preacher, who has also been banned by American authorities, was called \u201cdangerous and divisive\u201d by Tory leader David Cameron last week. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Mr Cameron also called on the government not to allow him to enter the UK \u2013 advice taken up by Gordon Brown much to the dismay of Muslim groups. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The Muslim Council of Britain accused to government of caving into the \u201cpro-Zionist and neo-conservative lobby\u201d.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, Secretary-General of the MCB said: \u201cYusuf Al Qaradawi enjoys unparalleled respect and influence throughout the Muslim world. I am afraid this decision will send the wrong message to Muslims everywhere about the state of British society and culture.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Mohammed Shafiq from the Ramadhan Foundation, a Muslim youth organisation, said the ruling pandered to xenophobia. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

“We’ve had figures like Nick Griffin and the BNP operating freely and promoting violence towards ethnic minorities, and nothing is done. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

“This smacks of double standards, and will isolate Muslim communities further.” <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The British Muslim Initiative (BMI) called the decision to bar al-Qaradawi “an unwarranted insult to British Muslims”. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The Home Office confirmed that it had refused al-Qaradawi a visa after taking advice from numerous Government departments. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

“The UK will not tolerate the presence of those who seek to justify any act of terrorist violence or express views that could foster inter-community violence,” a spokeswoman said. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Al-Qaradawi visited in 2004 and five times before that under the Conservatives between 1995-1997. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/div>\n

\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PRIME Minister Gordon Brown has evoked the fury of a number of Muslim groups after he banned a Muslim preacher from entering Britain. Yusuf al-Qaradawi, 81, had been hoping to come to London to receive medical treatment but it is understood that the Prime Minister has blocked his visa. The Middle East preacher, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}