Nanny has a rather schizophrenic view on life at times, at times she pretends to be compassionate and caring and on other occasions she administers firm punishment and discipline (that phrase will get this site some interesting hits from the search engines!).Anyhoo, Nanny's latest wheeze was to pay for Yusuf al-Qaradawi (a Muslim cleric who has defended suicide bombers) and his wife to fly from their home in Qatar to Istanbul for a two day conference called "Muslims in Europe", which was held in the 5 star Ceylan InterContinental Hotel.
By the way, when I said that Nanny paid, I should of course have said that we the taxpayer actually paid for this.
Al-Qaradawi is considered to be the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, a militant group with offshoots around the world which acts as the ideological engine room of Islamist extremism.
As if that is not enough, al-Qaradawi has also called for the execution of homosexuals and opposed equal rights for women.
He has also defended Palestinian suicide bombers who attack Israel as "a weapon which the weak resort to".
Nanny's chums in the Foreign Office confirmed that it had covered al-Qaradawi's expenses as part of its support for the conference, which took place earlier this month.
Nanny's special chum, Frances Guy the FCO civil servant in charge of the "Engaging with the Islamic World Group", met al-Qaradawi at the conference.
This of course kind of looks rather odd, given the fact that Nanny has called for an end to tolerance for so-called "preachers of hate".
Indeed, two years ago, Blairy Poppins herself said:
"Let me make it absolutely clear.
We want nothing to do with people who support suicide bombers in Palestine,
or elsewhere or support terrorism."
The FCO issued a memo last July which noted that some diplomats are keen to promote links with al-Qaradawi, describing him as "a highly respected Islamic scholar".
Nanny's chums in the FCO defended the decision to pay for al-Qaradawi to attend the conference:
"It is our view that you have got to engage in discussion with individuals with whom you don't necessarily agree."
Is this the same policy then being practiced at the moment in Lebanon, as Israel wages war by proxy against extremists for the UK and the US?
It all sounds a little schizophrenic to me.
Maybe Nanny needs to be institutionalised before she inflicts harm on someone?
It seems rather odd to me that this al-Qaradawi chappie firstly sees fit to accept any support from the filthy infidels and THEN takes his wife with him when his cohorts profess to be agin equality for women in any form.
ReplyDeleteCann't the bloke manage without a woman around for a couple of days?
Personally I would welcome an excuse to get away solo on a freebie 5 star jaunt.