Iraq Deputy Prime Minister ‘in Blackburn Mosque Jibe’

http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=1032

By Tom Moseley

THE DEPUTY Prime Minister of Iraq has claimed mosques in Blackburn are more http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=3037 than in his home country, according to an MP.

The shock comments were allegedly made by Dr Barham Salih, who visited the town as a guest of Jack http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2030 in 2005.

He is reported to have told a Conservative MP: “I am not surprised that you British are facing so many problems with extremists after what I saw in those mosques in Blackburn. What I saw…would not be allowed here in Iraq – it would be illegal.”

The comments have angered mosque leaders in the town, who have branded them “a load of rubbish”.

The Lancashire Telegraph has sent a fax to Dr Salih via the Iraqi Embassy in London asking him to explain his views.

Shadow culture minister Tobias Ellwood said Dr Salih was speaking to him at a dinner party in Baghdad in November.Mr Ellwood made the claims during a Westminster debate about terrorism.

Speaking after the debate, Mr Ellwood said: “I know Jack Straw well, but my eyebrows raise when you have a very senior Iraqi leader make comments like that.”

http://www.blackburncitizen.co.uk/news/newsheadlines/display.var.1981693.0.iraq_deputy_prime_minister_in_blackburn_mosque_jibe.php

2008-01-21