Primary school took children to meet ‘extremist’ imam
at the mosque attended by the killers of Lee Rigby, has provoked outrage.
Mr Begg, chief imam at Lewisham Islamic Centre, was described in a High Court judgment in a libel case last year as a “Jekyll and Hyde character”.
Mr Justice Haddon-Cave warned that Mr Begg’s role as imam put him in a position to “plant the seed of Islamic extremism in a young mind”.
One expert said it was “shocking and unacceptable” that a school was arranging visits to a known extremist and accused it of “woeful neglect”.
The Year 4 children from Kilmorie primary school visited Lewisham Islamic Centre in south-east London over the course of two days on March 21 and 22. Mr Begg hosted a discussion with the pupils. Details of the visit were posted on the mosque’s website including photographs of the imam with the children sat attentively on the floor.
On the Islamic centre’s website, Mr Begg praised the school children for their “keenness” to test their knowledge of Islam. Two days later, the imam addressed potential foster carers at a meeting held in conjunction with Lewisham council.
Tom Wilson, of the Henry Jackson Society think tank, who has written a research paper, entitled
condemned the visit. He said: “It is shocking and frankly unacceptable that any school should be arranging visits with anyone associated with extremism. If this is happening then there is a duty of care that is being woefully neglected.
“Schools are under a statutory duty that quite explicitly prohibits exposing pupils to extremists.”
He added: “The Department for Education has provided detailed guidance for schools on how to show due diligence when researching external speakers and guarding against the threat from extremists.
“One of the concerns about the Government’s counter-extremism Prevent strategy is that many of those in our public services who are responsible for upholding it still appear to be ill-informed about extremism and the dangers it poses.”
Mr Begg lost a libel case against the BBC after Andrew Neil, the presenter of the programme, had accused him of promoting extremism. During the case the BBC presented six speech by the imam, four of which, the court ruled, promoted violence.
Lewisham council declined to a series of questions posed by
but insisted it supported the Government’s strategy.
Sally Kelly, Kilmorie school’s chairman of governors, said: “Visits like this one to a religious establishment are an important part of our rich curriculum promoting the British values of tolerance of people of different faiths and beliefs… Safeguarding is a very high priority for us.” answer