A CONTROVERSIAL cleric who has defended suicide bombings in Israel and Iraq has attended an international conference at the expense of British taxpayers.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office confirmed yesterday that it paid for Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi to fly with his wife from his home in Qatar to Istanbul.

The couple’s accommodation at the five-star Ceylan InterContinental Hotel, the venue for the two-day Muslims of Europe conference, was also paid for by the Government.

Previous guests at the luxury hotel, where the rate for a junior suite is £500 a night and which boasts “breathtaking views over the Bosphorus”, have included Sir Mick Jagger, Sir Roger Moore and the singer Anastasia.

Dr al-Qaradawi, who has also called for the execution of homosexuals, addressed the first day of the conference this month which was fully funded at a cost of £300,000.

Frances Guy, the senior civil servant in charge of the Foreign Office’s “Engaging with the Islamic World Group”, met Dr al-Qaradawi at the conference.

The Government’s funding appears to contradict the view of Tony Blair that radicals who support terrorism should not be tolerated. The Egyptian-born cleric has defended Palestinian suicide bombings as “a weapon which the weak resort to”.

Last year, after the July 7 bombings in London, Mr Blair said: “Let me make it clear . . . we want nothing to do with people who support suicide bombers in Palestine or elsewhere or support terrorists.”

In March Mr Blair specifically condemned the extremist ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Dr al-Qaradawi is the spiritual leader.

Dr al-Qaradawi, 80, is banned from entering the United States and last visited Britain in 2004 as a guest of Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London. That trip provoked widespread protest from Jewish groups and gay rights organisations.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews referred a dossier on the cleric’s comments to the Crown Prosecution Service but it ruled that there were no grounds on which to charge him with any offence.

Despite the concerns about Dr al-Qaradawi, an influential element within the FCO has lobbied against any attempts by 10 Downing Street and the Home Office to exclude him permanently from Britain.

An FCO memo written last July, a copy of which has been seen by The Times, described him as “a highly respected Islamic scholar” and argued that he had condemned the 9/11 atrocities and the 7/7 bombs.

The author of the memo said that the cleric “should not be excluded from the United Kingdom given his influence in relation to our foreign policy objectives”. He did not spell out those policy aims.

An FCO spokesman defended the decision to pay for Dr al-Qaradawi’s attendance at the conference, describing him as “one of the leading Muslim scholars in the world”.

The spokesman added that although the Government had funded the conference it was left to a steering group, which included Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the former head of the Muslim Council of Britain, to invite participants. He added: “We knew Qaradawi was going. The point of the conference, and the reason we were keen to be involved, was to provide a platform to debate contemporary issues facing Muslims in Europe.

“It is our view that you have got to engage in discussion with individuals with whom you don’t necessarily agree.”

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