Saudi Arabia boosting extremism in Europe, says former ambassador

Saudi Arabia has been funding radical mosques throughout Europe that have become hotbeds of extremism, the former British ambassador to Saudi Arabia Sir William Patey has said.  

Saudi Arabia has been funding radical mosques throughout Europe that have become hotbeds of extremism, the former British ambassador to Saudi Arabia Sir William Patey has said.  

His remarks come a day after the government published a brief summary of a Home Office-commissioned report into the funding of extremism in the UK

The full report is not being published for security reasons.  Patey said he did not believe Saudi Arabia was directly funding terrorist groups, but rather an ideology that leads to extremism, and suggested that its leaders might not be aware of the consequences.

“It is unhealthy and we need to do something about it,” he said.

“The Saudis [have] not quite appreciated the impact their funding of a certain brand of Islam is having in the countries in which they do it – it is not just Britain and Europe.