David Cameron's call for a ban on Dr. Yusuf Al Qaradawi, the most prominent Muslim scholar and Chair of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, is gravely misguided and ill-informed.

In a speech to a working group between the Conservatives and the main German centre-right party the CDU, Mr Cameron urged the Government to "expel or refuse entry to those who preach hate, pit one faith against another and divide our society" and accused Dr. Qaradawi of "preaching hatred and sowing division".

No doubt Mr Cameron's ignorant statements on Dr. Qaradawi are the result of mis-briefing by his neo-Conservative aides - foremost among them being Michael Gove. What is curious is that Gove has been active in "preaching hatred and sowing division" himself. A right-wing think tank of which he is a Patron, Policy Exchange, has been at the forefront of efforts to promote the familiar neo-con agenda of stigmatising Muslims and was only recently exposed as fabricating evidence in order to smear the Muslim community and its places of worship.

Mr. Cameron's comments on Qaradawi show a similar disregard for evidence. If he cared to look more closely at Dr. Qaradawi's own writings and track record, he would see that Qaradawi has been a prominent and staunch critic of terrorism, condemning it as a "heinous crime" and an act of "total barbarism". He condemned the attacks of September 11 2001 as "a grave sin" and was a leading member of the panel of prominent Muslim scholars which issued a fatwa deploring the attacks and stating that it was the duty of all Muslims to attempt to bring the terrorists to justice.

Far from preaching hatred, Dr. Qaradawi has himself severely denounced preachers such as Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada, stating "there are among Muslims some fringe groups who represent the strength of violence and extremism, such as Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada, but these have no scholarly, practical or community weight... We call for love not hate, for tolerance not fanaticism, for peace not war."

Moreover, Dr. Qaradawi has been an outspoken supporter of the full participation of women in all spheres of public life and has been unswerving in arguing in favour of female education and employment (indeed his commitment to this can be seen in the fact that his daughter is one of the few prominent nuclear physicists in the Muslim world).

Cameron's efforts to portray Dr Qaradawi as an anti-semite are disproved by Dr. Qaradawi's constant emphasis on the special relations Muslims have had with Jews down the centuries, notably when the west persecuted and expelled them. Indeed, his work to promote understanding between Islam and other faiths has led him to share platforms and meet with such prominent figures as former-US President Bill Clinton, the French Foreign Minister, the Italian Foreign Minister and the Spanish royal family.

Mohammad Sawalha, President of BMI, stated, "It is astounding that Mr. Cameron is so perturbed by Dr. Qaradawi who has absolutely no involvement in violence entering the UK while apparently finding no difficulty in staunchly supporting the Israeli government's policy of systematic oppression of the Palestinian people. Mr Cameron's statement that "we must expel or refuse entry to those who preach hate and divide our society" is laughable when considering the vast number of his own MPs who have been forced to step down over the past year due to their racist views. This latest statement, far from being grounded in any real concern to combat prejudice and bigotry, is nothing more than a badly-disguised effort to distract from the more serious problems Mr Cameron faces within his own party".