Prince Charles of England has long been fascinated by Islam and the culture of the Middle East. Now it has emerged that the Prince of Wales is having lessons in Arabic. The Prince told guests at a reception in Qatar today that the language 'goes in one ear and out the other'.

But an aide revealed that he is so keen to learn it that he has been having private tuition for more than six months. Being able to read Arabic would enable the Prince, who is passionate about encouraging dialogue between different religions, to read the Koran in its original form. It would also mean he could decipher Arabic script during visits to mosques and museums of Islamic art.

The Prince was in Doha attending the launch of the Qatar-UK Alumni Network, for Qataris who have attended British universities. Dr Mohammed Bin Saleh Al-Sada, chairman of the association and Qatar’s energy minister, asked the Prince if he spoke any Arabic, and the Prince said: 'I tried to learn it once but I gave up. It goes in one ear and out the other.'Dr Al-Sada told him: 'It’s never too late to learn.'

One of the Prince’s aides confirmed that he has been having lessons in Arabic recently, adding: 'He is enormously interested in the region.' The Prince speaks good French, some German, and has also had lessons in Welsh.All of the women at the reception were dressed head to toe in black, wearing a traditional shaila on their head and an abayya covering their body. The Prince asked Dnya Al-Yahri, a 28-year-old Essex University graduate, 'Did you dress like that [in the UK]?' She replied: 'No.' The IT worker later said she and other Qatari women wore western clothes, with a headscarf covering their head, when they were students. All of the men in the room wore a traditional white thobe from neck to foot, with a ghitra on their head secured by a band called an igul.

Later the Prince had a private audience with Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser, the second - and favourite - wife and official consort of the Emir of Qatar, who is regarded as one of the most powerful figures in the oil-rich state.

Colonial Masters promoting what they do not believe in to keep their ex-colonies conquered.