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‘Army of children’: UK school teaching Islamic terror receives official warning

“His plan was to create an army of children to assist with multiple terrorist attacks throughout London,” said Commander Haydon.

By Josh Plank, World Israel News

The Charity Commission, the regulator of charities in England and Wales, issued an official warning Friday to the Lantern of Knowledge Educational Trust after a teacher there admitted to teaching terrorist material to children.

Umar Ahmed Haque was employed from April 2015 to January 2016 as an Islamic Studies teacher at the Lantern of Knowledge Secondary School in east London, an independent school for boys between the ages of 11 to 16.

In March 2018, Haque was found guilty on multiple counts of terrorism charges and later sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 25 years.

“His plan was to create an army of children to assist with multiple terrorist attacks throughout London,” said Dean Haydon, head of the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command.

“He tried and he did, we believe, radicalize vulnerable children from the ages of 11 to 14,” he said.

Haque admitted to showing children at Lantern of Knowledge an ISIS propaganda video. He said that he did not believe it would lead them to commit acts of terror, and the jury could not reach a verdict.

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However, he was found guilty of charges connected to his teaching at a separate school run by the Essex Islamic Academy.

The Charity Commission said Haque showed children videos that depicted scenes of extreme and brutal violence, including footage of people murdered by beheading, shot at close range, and having their throats cut.

In addition, Haque taught children “physical training/role plays with military undertones.”

This included having two opposing groups where children would take on the role of “martyrs” and police officers.

Tim Hopkins of the Charity Commission said, “Umar Haque’s action at this charity was appalling.”

“It is completely unacceptable for any charity to be associated with terrorism, and we are concerned by the corrosive effect this might have on public confidence in this and other charities,” he said.