The owner of a tiny island off the coast of Scotland has vowed to reject any offers to purchase the land made by a radical Islamist cleric intent on creating a new Muslim homeland governed under Sharia law.
Torsa, the 270-acre island to the west of Scotland is on the market for around £1.5 million (€1.78 million) and is uninhabited but for a 3-bedroom farmhouse included in the sale.
The Mail on Sunday newspaper reported how controversial radical Islamist preacher Sheikh Yasser al-Habib had plans to purchase the land and develop a safe haven for Muslims from around the world.
Al-Habib had announced his desire to build a school, hospital, and mosque on the island, and for residents to adhere to Sharia law — the fundamental legal code of Islam, despite the territory remaining under the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom.
However, MailOnline reported on Monday that the current owner assured concerned locals he would not sell the land to anyone considered to be a bad fit with the local community.
The island is around 1.2 miles long and 0.5 miles wide. It is only accessible by private boat and has not been permanently inhabited since the 1960s.
Local residents of adjacent islands expressed their contempt for Al-Habib’s plans.
“The proposal for setting up a sectarian religious outpost on a rural Scottish island is immoral,” said Alastair Redman, a local councillor.
“The fact that he wants to involve an idyllic setting in prejudiced preaching is simply unacceptable,” he added.
Alastair Fleming, a local resident of the neighboring island of Luing, said locals would hamper any plans with planning objections and questioned how viable Al-Habib’s plans were for an island so remote and small.
“It is not an easy island to set up a community on and I am perplexed as to why he has chosen Torsa. Even if he did buy the island, I do not think he would be able to carry out the works he is proposing,” he told MailOnline.
The Kuwaiti-born preacher, now based in London, has a chequered past. He claimed asylum in Britain after being sentenced to 10 years in prison in his home country for upsetting Sunni Muslims by “questioning the conduct and integrity of some of the ‘companions’ of the prophet Muhammad.”
In Britain, he has run military-style training regimes in the car park of a mosque in Buckinghamshire, and is the founder of controversial satellite channel Fadak TV, which has been scolded by Britain’s media regulator Ofcom on multiple occasions for “hate-filled broadcasts.”
The cleric, however, remains a popular figure among his audience with a following in the hundreds of thousands and is using his television channel to raise funds to buy the island.
Savills, the estate agent conducting the sale, insists it remains on the market.
