Saudi Arabia’s funding link to UK extremists

SAUDI Arabia is the chief source of foreign funding for Islamist extremism in Britain, a report has claimed.

The Henry Jackson Society think-tank yesterday called for a public inquiry into the role of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations, including Iran, after it stated that government-linked groups had funded hardline mosques in Britain that have been accused of fostering extremism.

There are also 24 ‘Saudi schools’ in the UK, some of which use the same textbooks as Islamic State does in areas it controls.

Report author Tom Wilson said: ‘There is a clear and growing link between foreign funding of Islamist extremism and the violent terrorism we have witnessed across the UK and Europe.

‘While entities from across the Gulf and Iran have been guilty of advancing extremism, those in Saudi Arabia are undoubtedly at the top of the list.’

Saudi Arabia’s efforts to export its hardline Wahhabi Islamic doctrine has led to support for mosques and institutions that appear to have links to extremism, the think-tank said. It found there have been ‘numerous’ cases of Britons joining jihadi groups in Iraq and Syria whose radicalisation linked back to foreignfunded institutions and preachers.

The UK’s Saudi Arabia embassy said the claims that it promoted Islamist extremism were ‘categorically false’.

A Government spokesman said: ‘We are determined to cut off the funding which fuels the evils of extremism and terrorism, and will work closely with international partners to tackle this threat.’