NEW YORK (JTA) — Textbooks used in a network of Islamic schools in Britain promote anti-Semitic views, the BBC reported.
The textbook says Jews were cursed by God and “looked like monkeys and pigs,” and it asks children to list the “reprehensible” qualities of Jews. The curriculum also contains homophobic views and instructs children on where to amputate the hands and feet of persons convicted of theft, in accordance with Islamic law, the report says.
The report was broadcast Monday night on the BBC program “Panorama.”
The textbooks, which are part of a Saudi Arabian government curriculum, are in use in more than 40 British part-time Islamic schools and clubs with 5,000 students, the report found. The schools reportedly are overseen by the cultural bureau of the Saudi Arabian Embassy in London.
Saudi officials quoted by the BBC said passages from the Koran often are “taken out of their historical context.” British officials quoted in the report said they would not tolerate any anti-Semitic teachings in British schools.
