The Government has been accused of burying a long-awaited report into the nature, scale and origin of the funding of Islamist extremist activity in the UK today, after it published only a two-page summary which conspicuously lacked mention of Saudi Arabia.
The report was commissioned almost two years ago by then-Prime Minister David Cameron, and was handed to the government last year. The three terrorist attacks on Britain in recent months have prompted increasingly strong questions by opposition parties as to why it has not yet been published in full.
The apparent cover-up has led to accusations by many parties in the Commons that the government is seeking to protect Saudi Arabia, whose name was expected to be featured prominently amongst those foreign governments and government-linked groups seeking to fund Islamic extremism, particularly as a recent report by the Henry Jackson Society said that Saudi Arabia in particular had been engaged in such activities.
“Foremost among these has been Saudi Arabia, which since the 1960s has sponsored a multimillion dollar effort to export Wahhabi Islam across the Islamic world, including to Muslim communities in the West,” the report said.
The move has been particularly strongly criticised by liberals, including Lib Dem leader Tim Farron, who said that “instead of supporting the perpetrators of these vile ideologies, the government should be naming and shaming them – including so-called allies like Saudi Arabia and Qatar if need be.”