The university had been criticised in the wake of the rejection of a state school pupil, Laura Spence, who subsequently was offered a scholarship for Harvard University in the United States.

BBC: Oxford reaches out to state schools

Treasury's self-described "seminar for the policy community" is co-sponsored with the leading academic promoters of Shariah and SCF in the United States: Harvard University Law School's Project on Islamic Finance.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Treasury submits to Shariah

Different studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Harvard, and Purdue have each concluded that the more positively one feels about the United States, the more likely one is to harbor anti-Arab feelings.

NPR: Many Arab-Americans Still Perceived As A 'Problem'