“Muslim Tories: ‘Iran has right to nuclear arms’,” by Andrew Porter for The Telegraph:
A body set up by David Cameron to advise the Conservatives on Muslim issues has criticised the Government’s relationship with Israel and concluded that Iran has “legitimate” reasons for wanting nuclear weapons.
The Conservative Muslim Forum also wants the compulsory history curriculum in schools changed to give “full recognition to the massive contribution that Islam has made to the development of Western civilisation”.
Human rights and equality commission chair Trevor Phillips recently proposed a similar idea. But the list goes on:
It also argues that preachers who advocate a rejection of democracy and its institutions should not be denied entry into Britain.
The findings are in a response to this summer’s report by the Tory National and International Security Policy Group chaired by new adviser, Dame Pauline Neville-Jones.
But the way it addresses certain key issues “” completely at odds with Tory policy “” will embarrass Mr Cameron. Its comments on Israel, in particular, will be seized on.
The report says: “Regardless of whether one finds Israel a congenial country or not, on any objective assessment of the type of unqualified support given to Israel by the current government it is not conducive to British national interests as this could damage Britain’s relationships with 15 billion Muslims worldwide, including those in Britain.”
Surely they and/or the Telegraph meant 1.5 billion, though even that is debatable. Still, given Muslim activists’ penchant for inflating their numbers, there’s something rather amusing about that typo.