The Scottish Islamic Foundation (SIF) has announced that it is sponsoring an exposition later this year aimed at building trade ties between Scotland and the Muslim world. According to the announcement :
A major expo is being organised this year to build trade links between Scotland and the Muslim world. The Scottish-Islamic Foundation is behind ‘Etisal ‘09’, which means ‘connections’, and which also seeks to benefit the Scottish finance sector by achieving infrastructure compatibility with the principles of Islamic finance. The organisation will be looking for sovereign wealth funds and others from Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) countries to visit Scotland for a few days to hear about the potential of the country. The event will take place this October in Glasgow, and Scottish industries are being approached to help draw up a “wish list” of ways in which they could benefit. Commenting, Osama Saeed, chief executive of the SIF said: “The goal of attracting investment into Scotland has become even more important due to the current economic downturn. The Middle East is one of the few areas where liquidity exists. As a country, we need to build our links there are many things about Scotland that would be attractive.Foundation.
The SIF is a relatively new organization that was officially launched in 2008 of this year and a U.K think-tank has reported on its ties to the global Muslim Brotherhood. The SIF has appears to be enjoying good relations with the Scottish government and has received government funding on more than one occasion. The SIF National Conference held on November 30 was scheduled to include global Muslim Brotherhood figures Tariq Ramadan, the grandson of the Brotherhood founder as well as Ahmed Rehab of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. Scottish Deputy First Minister Sturgeon was also scheduled to attend.