The king of Saudi Arabia has handed his country's most-prestigious prize to a preacher who has previously said the Koran allows Muslims to have sex with female slaves.

Indian cleric Zakir Naik, who has also said 9/11 was an inside job, was handed the King Faisal International Prize for Services to Islam at a glittering ceremony in Riyadh.

A physician by training, the Mumbai-based 49-year-old has carved out a career as a charismatic television preacher, but his controversial views have led to him being banned from entering the UK.

And the winner is... Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz presents Zakir Naik, president of the Islamic Research Foundation in India, with the 2015 King Faisal International Prize for Service to Islam

Dr Naik was one of five winners presented a gold medal, a certificate hand written in Arabic calligraphy and an endowment of more than £130,000 by Saudi King Salman during a ceremony at a luxury hotel yesterday.

The president of the Islamic Research Foundation in India, Dr Naik was honoured for being one of the most renowned non-Arabic speaking promoters of Islam.

He founded the Peace TV channel, billed as the world's only channel specialising in comparative religion, which now reaches an estimated English-language audience exceeding 100million, according to his award citation.

'Islam is the only religion that can bring peace to the whole of humanity,' he said in a video biography aired at the ceremony. It was on a broadcast on Peace TV that Dr Naik suggested that Muslims men may rape their slaves.

'There are many verses in the Koran which say you can have sex with your wife and with whatever your right hand possesses,' he told a mass audience at one event.

'Right hand possesses,' he went on. 'Which means your slaves.'

He goes on to qualify his statement by saying the world at the time of the Prophet Mohammed was beset by war, making slavery more common, and that a pious Muslim would marry the slave he wanted to have sex with first. But the remark seems to be a disturbing echo of the doctrines of the Middle East's Islamic State insurgency.

Last October, the terror group published an article on its propaganda page stating that the sexual enslavement of captured Yazidis was justified because they are a 'pagan minority'.

'Enslaving the families of the kuffar (non-believers) and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Sharia,' the article pronounced.

Inside the Islamic State: Last October, the terror group published an article on its propaganda page stating that the sexual enslavement of captured Yazidis was justified because they are a 'pagan minority'

'Inside job': Dr Naik has claimed the then-President George W Bush was behind the September 11 attacks

Dr Naik's controversial comments have extended beyond sexual politics. In a July 2008 Peace TV broadcast he suggested that Al-Qaeda was not responsible for flying hijacked airliners into New York's World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, killing almost 3,000 people.

'Even a fool will know that this was an inside job,' he said in the video, claiming then-President George W. Bush was behind the attacks.

In 2010 Dr Naik was barred from entering Britain after the Home Secretary cited 'numerous comments' which showed his 'unacceptable behaviour'.

During his acceptance speech at Riyadh's Al Faisaliah Hotel last night, Dr Naik told dignitaries he would be donating his prize money to Peace TV.

The annual prizes are a project of the King Faisal Foundation, established in 1976 by the children of King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz who died in 1975.

The other prize winners were:

In Islamic studies, Saudi Arabia's Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Kaki for his research on the cultural heritage of the Muslim holy city of Medina

In medicine, Jeffrey Ivan Gordon of the United States, whose research has enhanced understanding of diseases such as obesity, which is a growing problem in Saudi Arabia

In science, Michael Gratzel of Switzerland for his development of solar cells, and co-winner Omar Mwannes Yaghi of the United States for his work in the new field of metal organic frameworks.