KEN LIVINGSTONE, the Mayor of London, yesterday issued a public invitation to a controversial Muslim cleric to return to Britain later this year.

Mr Livingstone embraced Yusuf al-Qaradawi warmly as he shared a platform with him at City Hall for the second time in a week.

Dr al-Qaradawi, who defends Palestinian suicide bombers as martyrs, condemns homosexuality and advocates wife-beating, was greeted with shouts of Allahu akbar (God is greatest) as he arrived at the Pro-Hijab conference.

Mr Livingstone said Dr al-Qaradawi was a respected scholar who preached tolerance and the dispute over his visit had been whipped up by a xenophobic and Islamaphobic media.

He asked the Egyptian-born cleric, a leading figure in the Muslim Brotherhood, to return to London in October to speak at a three-day conference of the European Social Forum.

“I would be honoured Sheikh if you would be our guest and take part,” Mr Livingstone said.

Dr al-Qaradawi told the mayor he was a “symbol of defending truth and human brotherhood” and said: “May God make you successful.”

He added: “I hope that I will have no other commitments. I welcome his invitation and I hope I will meet him again.”

Mr Livingstone faces censure in the London Assembly later this week when it debates a motion deploring his decision to host a cleric who “has expressed support for the execution of homosexuals and domestic violence against women”.

Darren Johnson, a Green Party assembly member who proposed the motion, said he expected it would be carried.

“A lot of people cannot comprehend why the mayor has given a platform to someone with such obnoxious views,” Mr Johnson said. “He has done a lot of damage to relations with the gay community. There is a lot of hypocrisy on the Left from people who will condemn Christian fundamentalism or Jewish fundamentalism but turn a blind eye to Muslim bigotry.”

Mr Johnson joined Peter Tatchell and other protesters from OutRage!, the gay human rights group, outside City Hall as Dr al-Qaradawi arrived.

The demonstrators carried placards stating “Qaradawi endorses stoning of gays” and “Dr Q wants Muslim women forced to wear the hijab”.

The cleric’s last public engagement on this visit to Britain was a keynote speech at the conference supporting the campaign against bans on the hijab — the Muslim headscarf — in France and elsewhere.

Dr al-Qaradawi and Mr Livingstone addressed 250 delegates from a platform featuring six men and one woman. Mr Livingstone said he was speaking in favour of “a woman’s right to choose to wear the hijab”.

But Dr al-Qaradawi said wearing the hijab was “a religious obligation”. He added: “Islam requires for Muslim women a clear type of dress code. This is not the opinion of scholars, it is a requirement of the Koran, it is a duty and it is required of all Muslim women.

“If a Muslim woman is compelled to abandon her scarf then she is compelled to do what is against her faith. Is this compatible with civilisation?” Neville Nagler, director general of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, condemned the fresh invitation to Dr al-Qaradawi. He said: “It is always bizarre who Ken Livingstone chooses to meet. We remain of the view that this man should not have free access to this country.”

The Home Office said that there was no arbitrary power available for ministers to use to exclude people from Britain.

A spokesman said: “The power to exclude someone is used very rarely. It was exercised only 15 times last year.”

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