Schools 'promote anti-Semitism'

About 5,000 Muslim children are taught from books which claim that some Jews were transformed into pigs and apes and that the penalty for sodomy is execution and teach the correct ways to chop off the hands and feet of thieves, according to BBC TV's Panorama.

A spokesman for the programme said the pupils, aged six to 18, attend a network of more than 40 weekend schools across the UK which offer to teach the Saudi national curriculum to Muslim children.

Investigators found one book for children as young as six which asks what happens to someone who dies who is not a believer in Islam. The correct answer is "hellfire".

They also found a text for pupils aged 15 which teaches about Sharia law. It reads: "For thieves their hands will be cut off for a first offence, and their foot for a subsequent offence."

Other texts for the 15-year-old pupils also claim that Zionists want to establish world domination, a spokesman said.

Education Secretary Michael Gove told Panorama the sentiments of anti-Semitism and homophobia were "inappropriate" for young people.