KEN LIVINGSTONE provoked outrage yesterday when he compared an outspoken Muslim scholar who backs suicide bombings to the reforming Pope John XXIII.

The Mayor of London said that the position of Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi was similar to that of the late Pope because he was the most senior Islamic scholar saying that Islam must engage with the world.

“Sheik Qaradawi is I think very similar to the position of Pope John XXIII. An absolutely sane Islamist,” Mr Livingstone said.

He said that Sheik Qaradawi was a leading Islamic scholar calling for Islam to engage with the world, supporting democracy in the Middle East and calling for Islam to accept the changing role of women. “Of all the Muslim thinkers in the world today he is the most positive force for change,” he said.

Al-Qaradawi condemned the terrorist attacks in London but he has described suicide bombings in Israel as martyrdom operations. He has also been criticised by Jewish and gay rights groups who accused him of anti-Semitism and homophobia.

Pope John called the Second Vatican Council, which reshaped Roman Catholicism, bringing with it a new liturgy and a new approach towards other faiths.

Last night Ann Widdecombe, a former Shadow Home Secretary, criticised Mr Livingstone’s remarks. She said: “Ken Livingstone obviously has no idea either of the essentially holy nature of Pope John XXIII or the very dangerous nature of al-Qaradawi”.

James Clappison, a Conservative MP on the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, added: “I must say it is not a comparison that springs to mind”.

Mr Livingstone was giving evidence to a Commons Home Affairs Select Committee inquiry into the July terrorist attacks in London. He said that technology to sniff out explosives on the London Underground was being investigated as an option to make the transport network safer.

“We are working to see if anyone can develop a sort of sniffer technology that can work underground,” Mr Livingstone said. The airflow caused by Tube trains presented significant difficulties in setting up such systems.

Mr Livingstone also said that it would be difficult to install airport-style security on the Underground. “For every person who goes through Heathrow, 15 will go through the Tube,” he said. “There isn’t physically the space for the equipment. It would also mean huge tailbacks and would mean a dramatic change in the time people take for a journey.”

He said that there would be be 100 per cent closed-circuit television coverage on London buses by the end of the year on both upper and lower decks, compared with the present 95 per cent coverage. He added that he would double the number of CCTV cameras on the Underground within the next five years.

Mr Livingstone revealed that counter-terrorism exercises in the past had involved rehearsals involving multiple attacks on the Underground during a rush hour on a Friday night.

Another exercise had been one in which Scotland Yard’s headquarters had been attacked and Mr Livingstone had been blown up. “We covered every possibility,” he said.

The committee was told that a number of services and emergency measures had been found to work inadequately during and after the attacks. There needed to be improvements in ways of dealing with the tens of thousands of calls from members of the public to the crisis bureau set up after the attacks.

Other issues involved the transport network and which bus and rail routes to keep open or to close, and the issues of memorials, compensation and the way in which coroners operate.

There is also the importance of setting up a radio system for police officers that will work on the London Underground. At present only the British Transport Police have a system that does so. There have also been problems with the mobile phone network, which Mr Livingstone said would cost a lot of money to sort out.

The Mayor said that there had been difficulties in setting up somewhere for the families of victims to gather. A range of locations across London had been identified for use as centres and equipment was being purchased so that in future a centre would be operating on the first day of an attack, Mr Livingstone said.

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