British taxpayers pay for jihadist cleric's trip to Turkey

Sheikh Qaradawi, of course. "Taxpayers fund radical Muslim cleric's Turkey trip," from the Daily Mail,
British taxpayers paid for a Muslim cleric who has defended suicide bombers to attend a conference on Islam in Turkey, it has emerged.
The Government paid for Yusuf al-Qaradawi and his wife to fly from their home in Qatar to Istanbul for the two-day event, and for their accommodation in a five-star hotel.
The 80-year-old cleric was the focus of furious protests in 2004 when he visited Britain as a guest of London mayor Ken Livingstone.
He is considered 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.
Mr al-Qaradawi, who has also called for the execution of homosexuals and opposed equal rights for women, addressed the opening day of the £300,000 conference.
He has defended Palestinian suicide bombers who attack Israel as "a weapon which the weak resort to".
He was invited to speak by a steering group that included Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the former head of the Muslim Council of Britain.
The Foreign Office confirmed that it had covered Mr Qaradawi's expenses as part of its support for the conference, which took place earlier this month....
A spokesman for the FCO defended the decision to pay for Mr 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."
one of his interviews earlier in the year.