Isn’t it about time we told these sand-people where to get off? Isn’t it about time we told them to NAFF OFF?
THE GUARDIAN: British Muslims today accused Saudi Arabia of exporting extremist interpretations of the Qur'an, during a conference designed to improve understanding between Islam and the west.
The criticism came as the first international survey on the subject found that people in most countries believed relations between the two civilisations to be deteriorating.
The Symposium on Muslim Communities in Europe, organised by the World Economic Forum, brought together archbishops, imams, rabbis and other religious leaders in central London.
The exchange of views focused on how distrust between the two cultures could be overcome by examining religious and other differences.
Two prominent British Muslims, Ed Husain, the author of the memoir The Islamist, and Tim Winter, a divinity lecturer at Cambridge University, expressed alarm at the influence of Saudi-financed literature.
Such writings described Christians as "idol worshippers" and advocated an "extremist, Wahabi, puritanical" version of Islam, Winter said. European Islam, he maintained, was becoming a "vicarious playground" in a broader "war of ideas".
Husain also complained about "Saudi-sponsored" teaching at mosques encouraging Muslims to see themselves as a distinct political bloc with a "year-zero mindset".
Lord Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury, said the 9/11 attacks had done severe damage to Muslim communities in the west.
"The terrorists were able to hijack far more than the planes used in 9/11, they in fact hijacked these whole communities," he said.
"They were able, at a stroke, to make them - and even worse their religion - seem a potential source of fear to others. Saudis Stoking UK Extremism, Conference Told >>>
BBC:
Saudis to Retrain 40,000 Clerics By Magdi Abdlehadi
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
