The recent dismissal of a whistle-blower from the King Fahd Academy, an Islamic school in Acton, is all sufficiently close to home to be of concern to us. This school is an island of ‘culture’ somewhat isolated from its very distinctive multicultural surroundings. No matter how good the academy may claim to be in its general educational achievements, it appears to be strongly influenced by a curriculum derived from an imported monoculture.

The King Fahd Academy offers a curriculum in line with schools in Saudi Arabia even though the majority of children at the school are the children of British Muslims! The school has been criticised for some time by Ofsted for failing to meet regulatory requirements.

It is an independent school but it is still required to provide an educational programme fully compatible with the educational standards of this country - not Saudi Arabia.

The present situation involves a detailed statement issued by one member of staff regarding what he claims to be ‘unfair dismissal’. Mr Colin Cooke, a Muslim convert, has been teaching English at the school for 19 years. He was dismissed in December 2006 because, he claims, he blew the whistle on a school cover-up of cheating in GCSE examinations.

He states that he once complained about the school’s curriculum, questioning whether it complied with British laws. He was told in no uncertain terms that, “This is not England. It is Saudi Arabia”.

He further alleges that some of the Arabic textbooks used at the school describe Jews as “repugnant” and Christians as “pigs”. Now, if this is true, there is serious cause for concern. No school in this country may abuse young minds so blatantly with this sort of racist agenda. However, Mr Cooke is obviously an angry man who claims unfair dismissal. His grievances will be aired at a tribunal later this year.

In the meantime, there has been a lot of pressure on the school to amend its ways and it has already pledged to remove offensive pages from textbooks. A school spokesperson said that the quotations were extracts from an earlier Islamic scholar who wrote, “the monkeys are the Jews and the pigs are the Christian infidels at Jesus’ table” but agreed that the half-page of text would be cut from all 34 copies in the school library. At the same time it was insisted that teachers did not use these extracts.

Former pupils of the school have challenged this claim saying quite clearly that this material was taught and that they were also taught that, “people of other religions were not on a par as human beings with us”.

The affair has had repercussions elsewhere in Europe where similar matters have surfaced. The King Fahd Academy is a member of The Association of Muslim Schools which has more than 140 members in Britain.

One wonders what really goes in these privileged spaces. Further food for thought regarding the King Fahd School:

1) Boys and girls follow different curricula.

2) Parents have previously complained that the school is teaching British children fundamentalist Islam.

3) Ofsted inspected the school in March 2006 and made a series of criticisms of its performance refusing to give it full registration as an independent school. It warned that, while the quality of teaching was good, there was considerable disruption following staff changes and said that the curriculum would have to be changed.

4) The school devotes about half of all lessons to religious education. It also teaches most classes in Arabic.

5) The majority of British teachers left the school in 2005.

How should Humanists respond?

Anthony Constable