Pupils aged five 'poisoned' at Islamic school that 'teaches hate'
Blowing the whistle: Colin Cook taught English for 19 years at the Islamic academy in Acton until he was accused of gross misconduct last December
An Islamic school is poisoning the minds of pupils with lessons in hate, a former teacher claims.
Colin Cook, 57, says textbooks used by children as young as five at the King Fahad Academy in Acton describe Jews as "repugnant" and "apes" and Christians as "pigs".
Pupils have allegedly been heard saying they want to "kill Americans", praising 9/11 and idolising Osama bin Laden as their "hero". There are fears that it could become a breeding ground for terrorists with Mr Cook warning: "The school could produce a dangerous harvest."
Its sister school of the same name in Bonn has been singled out by the German intelligence services as a meeting place for activists linked to terrorism.
Mr Cook, a Muslim convert, taught English at the school for 19 years until he was sacked in December last year.
He claims he was fired after blowing the whistle on the school for covering up cheating by children in GCSE exams and is bringing a tribunal claim for unfair dismissal, race discrimination and victimisation.
He also alleges that when he complained to school management about the content of the curriculum and questioned whether it complied with British laws, he was told: "This is not England. It is Saudi Arabia".
He said that the school was "very good" until the majority of British teachers left in 2005. He said: "Since then, there has been a move towards a pro-Saudi agenda.
"It is clearly racist and very divisive. I understand now why the pupils express anti-Western views at school. It is deeply immoral to put such ideas into the heads of young children.
Mr Cook's solicitor Lawrence Davies said: "Faith schools are legitimate but they must not be used to propagate a racist agenda. Every faith school must be properly inspected. And those that promote the terrorist mindset must be called to account."
Mr Cook, a father of three, was earning £35,000 a year and is seeking £100,000 in compensation.
The school denies all his allegations and claims he was rightly dismissed for misconduct. Opened in 1985 for the offspring of Saudi diplomats in London, it is named after the former Saudi king and funded by that country's government.
But the overwhelming majority of its 750 pupils are now the children of British Muslims. The school - which teaches pupils up to the age of 18 - devotes around half of lessons to religious education and teaches almost all classes in Arabic, with boys and girls following different curriculums.
In the past, parents have claimed that the school is teaching British children fundamentalist Islam while giving girls an inferior education.
Ofsted, which inspected the school in March 2006, made a series of criticisms of its performance and refused to give it full registration as an independent school.
It warned that while the quality of teaching was good, there had been "major changes in staffing" which led to disruption, and told the school to improve the curriculum.
In papers submitted to Watford employment tribunal, Mr Cook says that most of the school's teachers are Saudis who speak little or no English. Mr Cook's lessons formed part of a British curriculum while a second Saudi curriculum was taught in Arabic. Mr Cooks claims that textbooks used on the Saudi curriculum, which are published by the Saudi government's ministry of education, prove that the academy "is institutionally racist".
He said: "The textbooks apparently state that the Jews are cursed. Pupils are asked to ' mention some repugnant characteristics of Jews'." Mr Cook said pupils are taught that religions including Christianity and Judaism are "worthless".
He said: "The teachers on the Saudi curriculum presumably either endorse this racist viewpoint or teach it without complaint."
Mr Cook claims he was sacked after he reported pupils cheating to exams board Edexcel. He said that staff allowed pupils to refer to their own, heavily annotated course books during an English language GCSE exam.
He said: "The Academy knows that cheating occurred. The boys who did cheat and those who probably cheated were not investigated or sanctioned.î Mr Cook was fired in December after being accused of gross misconduct. He said: "It was unlawful to sack me for whistle-blowing in these circumstances. A Saudi national would not have been treated in this adverse manner."
The school claims that Mr Cook was rightly dismissed for misconduct connected to the exams procedure. His tribunal is due to take place later this year.