Scottish media has reported on controversy surrounding links between the Scottish Islamic Foundation and its former leader Osama Saeed and the Scottish National Party. According to a report postedon a Scottish news portal:
The Scottish Government’s links with the Scottish Islamic Foundation have come under renewed scrutiny by opposition politicians. The Scottish Conservative Party have called into question the links between the Scottish Islamic Foundation (SIF) and the SNP Scottish Parliament. Read the rest here
The SIF is a relatively new organization that was officially launched in 2008 and a U.K think-tank has reported on its ties to the global Muslim Brotherhood. The SIF has appears to be enjoying good relations with the Scottish government and has received government funding on more than one occasion. The SIF National Conference held in November 2008 was scheduled to include global Muslim Brotherhood figures Tariq Ramadan, the grandson of the Brotherhood founder as well as Ahmed Rehab of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. Scottish Deputy First Minister Sturgeon was also scheduled to attend. A U.K. media report observes that former SIF chief Executive Osama Saeed enjoys close relations with Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond for whom he used to work as a researcher and documents Saeed’s controversial background including calls for an Islamic Caliphate and equivocal stands on terrorism. Saeed has been a candidate for the Scottish parliament on the ticket of the Scotttish Nationalist Party (SNP) and resigned his post as head of the SIF following an audit of the SIF accounts. According to both his Facebook page and to the organization’s website, Saeed is a member of the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow, an organization jointly sponsored by two organizations headed by “Ground Zero Mosque” project head Fesial Rauf and funded by Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, who has funded numerous projects tied to the Global Muslim Brotherhood.