WHEN the Prince of Wales opened the new campus of the Markfield Institute of Higher Education in January last year he called for a greater understanding of Islam.

“The need for access to information about the study of Islam has arguably never been greater,” the Prince said.

But information is emerging about the institute and another Islamic college that is giving cause for concern among those involved in education, charity regulation and community relations.

The college at Markfield, near Leicester, and the European Institute of Human Sciences (EIHS) in Llanybydder, West Wales, are suspected of having links with two of the oldest Islamist movements: the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, and Jamaat-e-Islami, which began on the Indian sub-continent in the 1940s.

Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a revered ideologue in the Muslim Brotherhood, has been associated with the EIHS since it opened in 1999 as an offshoot of L’Institut Européen des Sciences Humaines, which runs two similar colleges in France. The French institute’s website names Dr al-Qaradawi, 77, as a leading member of its scientific council.

The EIHS also states that it comes under the umbrella of the Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe (FIOE). The other leading affiliate of the FIOE is the European Council for Fatwa and Research, a Dublin-based organisation of which Dr al-Qaradawi is president.

The Egyptian-born cleric, who lives in Qatar, chaired a meeting of the fatwa council during one of his regular trips to the UK, when he twice shared a platform with the Mayor of London this month.

The EIHS registered as a charity in 2001, stating that its aim was to “advance education in accordance with the tenets and doctrine of Islam”. Although it argues it is trying to educate a new generation of imams who understand British society, many of the 80 students at the EIHS come from traditional Muslim countries. Teaching is conducted solely in Arabic.

The Markfield Institute of Higher Education shares the site with the Islamic Foundation, a registered charity since 1973 and its parent body.

Khurshid Ahmad, 72, is chairman of the charity’s board of trustees and rector of the college. He is also vice-president of Jamaat-e-Islami in Pakistan and a senator. His party argues for the creation of an Islamic state in Pakistan.

Azzam Tamimi, a senior lecturer at Markfield, has told The Times that he is a supporter of Hamas.

Last year two of the trustees of the Islamic Foundation were found to be on the UN sanctions list of people associated with the Taleban or al-Qaeda. The men, who do not live in Britain, were suspended and later resigned.

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