A teacher who tried to create an "army of children" to carry out terror attacks in the UK has been banned from teaching for life. Umar Haque had left some children needing long-term support after his lessons which included horrific videos of people being beheaded and youngsters being made to reenact knife attacks on police during role play exercises.
A court was previously told how he wanted the 11 to 14-year-olds to help him attack Heathrow Airport, the Queen's Guard, Big Ben and other London sites after becoming 'obsessed' with the 2017 Westminster Bridge attack. He was jailed for life at the Old Bailey with a minimum term of 25 years after being convicted of terror offences five years ago.
Now he has been struck off the teaching register after a misconduct hearing was told how he had faced the charges along with three co-defendants, and was subsequently convicted of offences under the Terrorism Act 2006. A panel was told how over a two-month period between March to May 2017, the then 25-year-old planned a variety of differing styles of attack with either the direct or indirect assistance of his associates.
The panel was told: "During the course of the police investigation and subsequent criminal trial, evidence was gathered and presented to the court which demonstrated that, whilst employed in a teaching role, Haque had intentionally exposed his pupils to extremist material to inculcate them with the ideology of Islamic State and persuade them into action in due course."
Haque worked at the Lantern of Knowledge Islamic school in Leyton, east London from 2015 to 2016 and worked as an administrator at the Ripple Road Mosque. The Teaching Regulation Agency panel was told it was thought that Haque had contact with upwards of 220 children during this time, aged between nine and 16.
Fifty-five children, aged between 11 to 14, were identified as having been exposed to extremism and attempts at radicalisation. The criminal case at the Old Bailey was told how pupils had been left "paralysed with fear" by him with no reports being made about his behaviour.
Evidence collected from children during the police investigation was given to the panel with one describing how the teacher was calm in his lessons but would talk about ISIS. The pupil told how he showed pupils a video on a projector from YouTube which started with people with guns and ammunition and included the burning of red passports in a fire.
The pupil said the video went on to show “people having found someone and chopping his head off with a knife or sword”. There was also a black flag, which the child described as “the ISIS one”, which Haque said he had at home.
Pupils told how at one point, a student shouted that someone was coming. Haque then turned the video off and told the pupils not to tell anyone that he had shown them it.
Considering whether he should be struck off the panel looked at whether Haque's actions had not been deliberate but it ruled he was "well aware" of what he had been doing. They said there was a "high risk" of repeating the behaviour in future commenting that on day one of the hearing the teacher told the panel: "It does not bother me an inch that the Teaching Regulation Agency seek to impose upon me a lifetime ban from teaching for indeed I will merely be re-employed by The Islamic Caliphate (the Islamic State) in the future…”
Haque refused to appear for the two subsequent days of the hearing and was struck off in his absence. Striking him off the register for life the panel ruled: "It was clear that Mr Haque’s conduct demonstrated a lack of tolerance and/or hatred on the grounds of race/religion and/or the undermining of fundamental British values.”
