I note with interest that in response to the questions I have raised about the process of funding for the Scottish-Islamic Foundation (SIF), neither of your correspondents (Dr Abdullah Al-Adhami and Faisal Hussein, Letters, August 13 and 14) has answered my questions in any real form or fashion.
I note with interest that in response to the questions I have raised about the process of funding for the Scottish-Islamic Foundation (SIF), neither of your correspondents (Dr Abdullah Al-Adhami and Faisal Hussein, Letters, August 13 and 14) has answered my questions in any real form or fashion.
In the case of Mr Hussein, perhaps his reticence is understandable given his close proximity to Osama Saeed and to the SNP - facts that would enable his own minor contribution to be put into perspective.
But enough of that. The matter of substance is the transparency involved in the funding being made available to the SIF.
Dr Al-Adhami, the secretary of the Scottish-Islamic Foundation (SIF) claims "a tiny handful of people attacking us were misinformed". The facts are that questions that my parliamentary colleagues and I have asked are about the process, procedure and policy of allocating large sums of Scottish Government money, and whether SNP ministers have given special access to a group for party political reasons.
None of the SIF's secretary, Dr Al-Adhami, its interim chief executive, Osama Saeed or the Scottish ministers have so far responded to any of the legitimate questions asked about the process of how the SIF came to receive two separate awards of public money, totalling £400,000, within a short space of time and after "countless meetings with civil servants and ministers".
There remain a number of very worrying questions to be answered by the SNP administration and I would repeat my call to the First Minister to hold an independent inquiry into the awards of public money to SIF.
Surely the government has nothing to hide. We shall see.
Frank McAveety, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, The Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh.
