Sponsors of the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion postponed presenting the $369,000 prize to this year's winner while they investigate charges that he fostered anti-Semitism, a newspaper reported. Inamullah Khan, secretary-general of the World Moslem Congress, was chosen last month to receive the award. He was the first Moslem to win the award, which has been presented 15 times. The American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith protested, saying that Khan and his organization had fostered anti-Semitism for years, The New York Times reported Tuesday. Khan, 73, of Pakistan, has denied the charges and said: ``I can never support anti-Semitic feelings because I am myself a descendant of Semitic ancestors from the Middle East.'' He said he differs with Zionists ``because the U.N. General Assembly has declared Zionism a racist creed.'' The decision to delay the presentation was announced last week, the Times said. Khan's supporters say he and his organization have been more willing than other Islamic groups to maintain contacts with Jewish representatives in national and international settings. However, The Moslem World, a newsletter of the World Moslem Congress, has published many comments critical of Jews and Zionism. The newsletter also has advertised and endorsed ``The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' and Henry Ford's ``The International Jew,'' both notorious anti-Semitic tracts. Past recipients of the prize include Mother Teresa, the Rev. Billy Graham and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Sir John Templeton, an American-born financier living in the Bahamas, established the prize in 1972 as a religious counterpart to the Nobel Prizes for peace, science and literature.
