London’s first Muslim mayor Sadiq Khan received £15,000 from a donor who gave £150,000 to a banned Muslim cleric who said he was “with” Osama Bin Laden for “terrorising the terrorists [America]”.
The Mail reports Farouq Sheikh – who handed the money to Mr. Khan in order to assist his victory over Conservative Party mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith – previously “bankrolled” Dr. Zakir Naik, who the Home Secretary Theresa May excluded from the United Kingdom for his terror-backing comments.
Mr. Sheikh, a millionaire who lives in Britain, apparently donated “at least £150,000 over a three-year period to a charity” founded by Dr Naik, ostensibly to run the “Peace TV” television channel.
The very same channel was censured by Britain’s broadcast regulator Ofcom for airing an anti-Semitic lecture which included the comments: “That is the mark of this cursed race, that despite God’s divine grace they do not take advantage of the opportunity to repent, which is why they are afflicted by great calamities, and the example is what happened to them at the hands of the Germans.”
Dr. Naik is most famed for having declared: “If he [Osama Bin Laden] is terrorising the terrorists, if he is terrorising America – the biggest terrorists – then I am with him. Every Muslim should be a terrorist.”
He is a rare, though well known Indian Salafist who has a significant presence in the United Kingdom through his online outreach and television channels.
A spokesman for Mr Khan told the Mail: “All donations were made in accordance with Electoral Commission rules. Apart from supporting the Prince’s Trust, we were not aware of any other donations Farouq Sheikh had made to other organisations.”
But the Cosaraf Charitable Foundation, belonging to Mr Sheikh and his brother Haroon, donated money to Dr. Naik through the Islamic Research Foundation International (IRFI) charity in 2010.
A spokesman for the Mr. Sheikh said: “Cosaraf is a UK-registered charity that supports philanthropic causes in Britain and abroad. Neither it nor its trustees endorse or support extremist or anti-Semitic views in any way.
“The foundation did not knowingly donate money to any organisation that funded extremism. It ceased its donations [to IRFI] following a robust periodic review in early 2012.”
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