Yard launches probe into preacher

A police file on the radical Muslim cleric who supports suicide bombers in Israel and Iraq has been sent to the Crown Prosecution Service, it was revealed today.

Yard chief Sir John Stevens said he had launched the probe after receiving an official complaint from the Jewish Council.

The cleric is on a speaking tour of Britain and yesterday attended a conference hosted by Ken Livingstone.

Dr al-Qaradawi, who has referred to Palestinian suicide bombers as "martyrs", has also spoken out in support of killing homosexuals and wife-beating.

On Newsnight last night he appeared to incite Iraqis to attack British and American troops.

Speaking to the Metropolitan Police Authority today, Sir John said: "The anger that has been created by the comments made by the individual is quite considerable.

"I have had phone calls from eminent members of the Jewish community. Members of the Jewish Council have made an official complaint."

Sir John added: "I have never heard some very eminent members of that council so angry at what has taken place. We all live in a liberal democracy and people are allowed their views. But if comments go beyond a level of tolerance they breach the law.

"I for one will not associate myself with the comments that this man has made."

In an extraordinary twist it also emerged that a Muslim educational conference being held on Sunday, which is being addressed by the cleric, is also being backed by the Metropolitan Police. A poster advertising the event bears the logo of the Met and is being distributed across London.

Sir John said he would look at the event to establish if there was any racial element to it and, if there was, the police would withdraw immediately.

The Mayor today defended his decision to host the Muslim cleric at City Hall yesterday, saying he was a leading moderate whose views deserved to be heard.

Responding to questions from schoolchildren about his decision to host the event, Mr Livingstone said: "I have gone through life reading in the papers what I have said and not recognising it. I have had the same experience with this gentleman you are referring to. The Muslim faith doesn't have a Pope or Archbishop of Canterbury, it has a layer of cardinals. He is effectively in that rank.

"He is most probably the leading moderate in that rank. He is a person who is condemned as a heretic by the fundamentalist sect in Saudi Arabia."

The Mayor then went on to compare the situation to that in the Eighties when he was denounced for meetings with the IRA leadership during their bombing campaign against the UK mainland.

Mr Livingstone added: "That is exactly the same sort of position he is talking about, the situation between Israel and the Palestinians. It's no good demonising him. The problems will not be solved until there is a political solution." Labour MPs and gay rights groups criticised Mr Livingstone for giving such strong support to him.

As calls grew today for Dr al-Qaradawi, 78, to be deported it emerged that Kensington and Chelsea council will allow him to attend a Muslim Association of Britain conference at its town hall on Saturday.

A spokesman for Kensington and Chelsea council said: "We have always taken the view that, unless the police advise that there is a threat to public order or security, we will not rescind bookings already made.

"We have been in touch with Special Branch and followed their advice."

Tory leader Michael Howard has urged Tony Blair to kick Dr al-Qaradawi out of the country because his presence was not "conducive to the public good".

Dr al-Qaradawi has been banned from the US and his home country Egypt because of his links to hardline group the Muslim Brotherhood which is suspected of supporting terrorism.