Saudi Arabia Awards Top Prize To Islamic Cleric Who Blamed George Bush For 9/11 Attacks

The king of Saudi Arabia has awarded his country's most-prestigious prize to a preacher who has previously said the Koran allows Muslims to have sex with female slaves. Indian cleric, Zakir Naik, who has also said 9/11 was an inside job, was handed the King Faisal International Prize for Services to Islam at a glittering ceremony in Riyadh.

A physician by training, the Mumbai-based 49-year-old has carved out a career as a charismatic television preacher, but his controversial views have led to him being banned from entering the UK.

Dr Naik was one of five winners presented a gold medal, a certificate hand written in Arabic calligraphy and an endowment of more than £130,000 bySaudi King Salman during a ceremony at a luxury hotel yesterday.

In a July 2008 Peace TV broadcast, Naik suggested that al-Qaida was not responsible for flying hijacked airliners into New York’s World Trade Center on 11 September 2001, killing almost 3,000 people.“Even a fool will know that this was an inside job,” he said in the video, claiming then-president George W Bush was behind the attacks.

'Islam is the only religion that can bring peace to the whole of humanity,' he said in a video biography aired at the ceremony. It was on a broadcast on Peace TV that Dr Naik suggested that Muslims men may rape their slaves.

'There are many verses in the Koran which say you can have sex with your wife and with whatever your right hand possesses,Right hand possesses, which means your slaves.' he told a mass audience at one event.'

Sources: The Guardian / Mailonline