DOHA, 21 February 2008 — Supporters of Qatar-based Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi staged a sit-in outside the British Embassy in Doha yesterday to protest London’s denial of a visa to the widely respected Muslim scholar.

“Mr. Brown: Why are you rejecting tolerance and dialogue?” read one of the banners raised by the protesters, who numbered around 400, referring to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Lawyer Najib Al-Nuaimi, a former Qatari justice minister acting as Qaradawi’s representative in the affair, handed the deputy head of the British mission, Claire Evans, a letter of protest. The letter demands that the British government reconsider its “unfair and illegal” decision to deny Qaradawi a visa, Nuaimi said.

Earlier this month, Britain denied a visa to the Egyptian-born scholar, which he requested for medical treatment.

Organizers of the sit-in, held under the watch of police amid a heavy sandstorm just hours after the British Embassy moved to new premises, described themselves as “supporters of Qaradawi.”

“We are very happy with your peaceful demonstration today, and we will pass the information to London,” Evans told Nuaimi after receiving the written protest.

Qatari preacher Sheikh Mohieddin Al-Qaradaghi told reporters that Britain had taken an “unfair decision” against a “symbol of centrism in Islam,” and this would “benefit extremists from both sides”.

Last month, David Cameron, the leader of Britain’s main opposition Conservative Party, demanded that Brown ban “preachers of hate” from Britain, naming Qaradawi.

“The UK will not tolerate the presence of those who seek to justify any acts of terrorist violence or express views that could foster inter-community violence,” said a spokesman for the Home Office, Britain’s Interior Ministry.

The move was welcomed by the Community Security Trust, an organization which works to prevent anti-Semitic attacks. But the decision was sharply criticized by the Muslim Council of Britain. The British Muslim Initiative (BMI) also condemned the move, saying it was “an unwarranted insult to British Muslims.”

Qaradawi has been banned from entering the United States since 1999.