£350,000 trips to boost the image of British MuslimsBy Ben Leapman, Home Affairs Correspondent, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 1:37am GMT 11/12/2006Taxpayers are funding a £350,000 globetrotting tour that is intended to improve the "image of British Muslims" around the world.
The Foreign Office has dispatched parties of up to eight Muslims as far afield as Indonesia, Nigeria and Pakistan, so they can "share their experiences" with locals.
The groups have been staying in exclusive hotels and even flown business class on some legs, with all accommodation and travel expenses met from the public purse.
Officials claim that the visits – to 18 countries including 12 Islamic nations such as Morocco, Egypt and Bahrain – have helped to promote a positive image of what life is like for Muslims in Britain.
However, some of the trips appear to have backfired, with participants using them as a platform to criticise Britain and its government.
On a visit to Bangladesh, one of the travelling party claimed at a press conference that British employers are prejudiced against Muslims and are more likely to offer jobs to Hindus. On a trip to Singapore, a tour party member told journalists that British Muslims were "suspicious" of the British Government.
During the trips, the visitors have met prominent radicals. In Sudan, they held talks with Hassan al-Turabi, the veteran Islamist who sheltered Osama bin Laden in the 1990s. In the Middle East they met Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the preacher who has defended Palestinian suicide bombers.
Critics claimed that the -programme of visits, called Projecting British Muslims, are a waste of taxpayers' money.
Ben Wallace, Conservative MP for Lancaster and Wyre, who uncovered the cost using Parliamentary questions, said: "I'm not sure how sending British Muslims abroad to other Islamic countries helps to counter the jihadi movement at home. I can't see that this is anything more than a jolly for a lot of people.
"It should not be forgotten that Britain has an appalling record of exporting jihadi fighters to other countries, not the other way around."
The initiative was suggested by a Muslim panel set up following the July 2005 London bombings. It was included as a proposal in Preventing Extremism Together, last year's government report on ways to tackle radicalisation among young British Muslims.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "The idea is to promote British Muslims overseas, to try to get rid of the myth that British Muslims are oppressed, and to give Muslims in the UK the experience of how Muslims in other parts of the world live.
"We have had good feedback from both those who went on the visits, and from those countries they visited. A clearer picture of each -other's environment and opinion emerges, breaking often--misleading stereotypes."
One participant, Lutfur Ali, a London-based management consultant, said: "Having initially felt sceptical, I found the visits to be quite invaluable in debunking some of the myths people have of us.
"I think some of the young people who went on these delegations came back grateful they live in a country that gives them the freedom to do a greater number of things."
Sir Iqbal Sacranie, former secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, led a six-member delegation to Pakistan in June. Sadiq Khan, the Labour MP, led a group that visited Malaysia and -Singapore in July.
Each delegation includes between four and eight British Muslims, including women and young people. Since the first visit in late 2005, they have gone to Bahrain, Qatar, Sudan, Egypt, Nigeria, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Morocco, Algeria, Bosnia, Spain, Germany, France and Holland. The next trip will be to the United States.
More than 60 people have taken part. On the five-day Middle East trip, the party flew business class on long-haul legs. In Algeria, there were complaints from group members that their minibus was not air-conditioned.
The visits are funded under a Foreign Office programme called Engaging with the Islamic World Group, which has an £8.5 million annual budget and a staff of 26.
In May, according to Bangladeshi media reports, a member of the British delegation claimed at a press conference in the capital, Dhaka, that if an equally-qualified Hindu and Muslim applied for the same job in Britain, then the Hindu would be three times more likely to land the job.
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