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.”