Amsterdam’s VU University has cancelled a symposium due to be attended by a controversial British-Palestinian Islamic law expert following protests from MPs and Jewish groups.

Sheik Haitham al-Haddad had been invited to attend two days of discussion on the position of Islamic academics in the west but the event has been cancelled because a proper debate is no longer possible, the university said in astatement.

MPs wanted al-Haddad banned because of derogatory remarks he is said to have made about Jews. The sheik told the Nos he had never made such comments, but did not deny supporting a strict intepretation of Islamic law, or Sharia. ‘But this would not apply in western countries,’ he said.

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