In her letter to Mr Saeed, the festival's director, Isabel Carlisle, said: "We have sought to go beyond sectarian, ethnic or other group divisions so we do not enquire into the sexual orientation, gender or ethnicity of the artists ... equally, at this difficult time for Muslims living in this country we are not prepared to present works that will give offence to significant numbers."
Ms Carlisle told the Guardian: "The festival is "non-ideological and non-political and non-sectarian ... we don't want to be subverted by any other agenda and that is principally why we turned Mr Saeed down."
Muhammad Yusuf, a member of the Interfaith Alliance, said it was a "matter of regret" that a festival aiming to reflect the diversity of Muslim culture was not prepared to take on board a facet that was different by reason of sexual orientation.
"this difficult time for Muslims living in this country"?!? It's Muslims terrorists who are attacking us!!
And heaven knows we shouldn't offend Muslims. But is perfectly ok for them to offend us.
Charles and Livingstone should be ashamed of themselves for pandering to Muslims and the government should get our money back.
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