FEARS OVER ISLAM ADVISER

Former Shadow Communities Minister Paul Goodman

Sunday January 10,2010

By Ted Jeory, Whitehall Editor

A SENIOR Tory has raised concerns about the appointment of a former Muslim student leader as a Government adviser on faith issues.

Former Shadow Communities Minister Paul Goodman said he was worried about Wakkas Khan’s links to hardline Islamist party Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Mr Khan was appointed to the Government’s new 13-strong panel of faith advisers by Communities Secretary John Denham last week—a list that snubbed the controversial Muslim Council of Britain.

He was president of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) at the time of the July 7 bombings in 2005 and later became a founding member of the Government-backed Radical Middle Way project to foster community cohesion.

His stint as Muslim student leader overlapped with the rise of Detroit bomber Umar Abdulmutallab at the University College London Islamic Society.

Yet at the time Mr Khan denied there was a major problem with the radicalisation by Islamists on British campuses.

Also in 2006, he supported the overturning of a ban on Hizb ut-Tahrir within the National Union of Students, writing at the time: “Many unsubstantiated accusations have been levied against Hizb ut-Tahrir in the past, but in reality the organisation works to advance the Muslim world by engaging in political work.”

Mr Khan is now the director of the Exploring Islam Foundation.

Tory MP Mr Goodman, who last week urged Gordon Brown to call a summit to discuss how to tackle extremism in Britain, said last night: “Hizb ut-Tahrir should be banned and it would be unacceptable for any Government adviser to have sympathy for it.”