In the long-lost days when I was chief political commentator for the Daily Telegraph, I used to engage with Anas Altikriti, chief executive of the Cordoba Foundation, on Muslim issues.
Cordoba disputes the proposition, much favoured by other American and British think tanks, of an inevitable clash of civilisations between Islam and the West.
Altikriti himself came into the spotlight after revealing that he had suddenly - and without warning - been stripped of his bank account by HSBC in 2014. He told me: “Having a bank account in the modern world is like having electricity or running water. You can’t live life without one.”
Altikriti had banked with HSBC for around 30 years. HSBC simply told him that his bank account fell “outside our risk appetite”. Under British law, they had no obligation to say more.
HSBC had also written to his wife, Malath Shakir, and two sons (aged 16 and 12), cancelling their accounts.
