£70,000 for teacher who blew whistle on 'lessons of hate'

Colin Cook told a tribunal how children as young as five were taught from Arabic books describing Jews as " monkeys" and Christians as "pigs" at the King Fahad Academy in Acton.

Former English teacher Mr Cook, 58, said the school was forced to shred 2,000 extremist textbooks after he exposed its racist Saudi curriculum - but that it secretly photocopied them first for future use.

The school, which opened in 1985 for the children of Saudi diplomats and is funded and controlled by the Saudi government, has vigorously denied ever teaching any form of racial hatred.

It insists that the offending passages in the books were "misinterpreted" and that they were never used.

Pupils at the private Muslim faith school included the five children of jailed hate preacher Abu Hamza and those of Abu Qatada, believed to be Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe, Watford Employment Tribunal heard.

The tribunal upheld Mr Cook's claim that he was wrongly sacked from his £36,000-a-year post in December 2006 for blowing the whistle to the Edexcel exam board, claiming the school had covered up cheating by children in a GCSE exam.

It awarded Mr Cook £58,800 in compensation for loss of earnings and £10,500 for injury to feelings.

The tribunal panel was not required to rule on Mr Cook's allegations about the school's curriculum or whether the alleged cover-up had happened.

But in its judgment the panel said that it considered Mr Cook to be a "truthful witness", and accepted that he thought that there might have been a cover-up.

Married father-of-three Mr Cook, of Feltham, south London, had been seeking £135,000 compensation. He failed in his other claim of race discrimination against the school.

Today Mr Cook said: "There were dark days when I hit rock bottom and felt that I could not go on but I got justice in the end. I blew the whistle because it was my duty as a teacher to uphold the universal values of the profession. But, to this day, I have still not had any apology from the school for my sacking.

"I have been accused by people at the school and outside the school of lies and distortion. The school implied that I had endangered pupils with my allegations.

"The evidence speaks otherwise. I told the truth all along. Islam teaches peace and honesty.

Hopefully, my accusers will now realise that I acted justly and for the good of the school."

Mr Cook, who remortgaged his house to fund the case, told the tribunal that after his sacking he discovered that Jews were referred to as "repugnant" and Christianity and Judaism as "worthless religions" in school textbooks.

After Mr Cook's revelations in February last year, head teacher Dr Sumaya Alyusuf went on BBC2's Newsnight to defend the school.

She told interviewer Jeremy Paxman that she was aware of the books but refused to withdraw them because they had "good chapters that can be used by the teachers".

Mr Cook now works as a private tutor.