Our booking policy makes it clear that all speakers and publicity must be approved through our formal process. In the case of the Global Aid Trust event on 9 Feb 2014, one of their speakers dropped out so they suggested a replacement speaker, Mufti Muhammad ibn Adam Al-Kawthari. It was made clear that if they did not want to wait longer for confirmation they should withdraw their request for a replacement speaker. As Global Aid were keen to promote their event, they agreed not to include him.

Contrary to reports, we did not veto or ban Mufti Muhammad ibn Adam Al-Kawthari, nor did we suggest his views are extreme. If his name had not been withdrawn, it would have gone through our normal approval process.

Unfortunately, some (not all) Global Aid publicity mistakenly included Mufti Muhammad; they later acknowledged this error on their Facebook page. We accept this was a genuine mistake.

We appreciate the patience of all those who held back from casting judgement before the matter was made clear. We will be contacting Mufti Muhammad and the East London Advertiser to clarify and address any misinformation on the matter.