A primary schoolteacher has been banned from teaching after sending thousands of pounds to people and groups with terrorist links.
Police alerted the UK's teaching watchdog after discovering Miriam Sebbagh, 52, had been funding banned terrorist organisation Al-Muhajiroun (ALM), as well as sharing extremist videos.
Ms Sebbagh had been working at Hunwick primary school in Crook, County Durham, in the north-east of England.
Counter Terrorism Policing North East (CTPNE) discovered she had made five payments of £2,500 ($3,396) to a person linked to ALM.
Despite being arrested in 2017, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided there was “insufficient evidence” to charge her.
However, the CTPNE “maintained a high level of concern” regarding Ms Sebbagh’s state of mind, her opinions and her actions as a teacher, and submitted that her conduct should be considered by the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA).
She has now been prohibited “indefinitely” from any classroom by the TRA.
“Ms Sebbagh initially came to the attention of CTPNE following receipt of financial intelligence which indicated that she had made several payments to an individual linked to Al-Muhajiroun, which is a proscribed terrorist organisation,” the TRA panel heard.
“The investigation identified that Ms Sebbagh sent five payments [of ] £2,500 from her account to the individual.”
A further seven payments totalling £1,310 were made between January 27 and July 5, in 2016, to a person who is suspected of having left the UK to join ISIS.
In 2017, a payment of £100 was made to an individual believed to have married a suspected ALM member, and there was an unsuccessful payment in 2015 to a person arrested over terrorism offences, the panel was told.
Police discovered £4,670 in a safe at her address in 2018 which they believe was intended to fund terror attacks.
The money was forfeited under the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 and Ms Sebbagh was also ordered to pay costs of £12,654.
During a police interview in May 2018, Ms Sebbagh said she regularly donated to good causes including Muslim charities, as part of her faith, and denied making payments to those linked to terrorism.
“Despite Ms Sebbagh’s assertion that the payments she had made were charitable in nature, the only ‘charitable’ aspects of those payments were to support fellow extremists while under criminal investigation for terrorist-related offences and/or to fund travel to join ISIS or others who espouse hate,” the panel was told.
The panel also heard Ms Sebbagh had “strongly-held views” that violent extremism was the “correct interpretation of Islamic teaching”.
She had liked a number of pages on Facebook including those of individuals linked to ISIS, extremist views and hate speech, and had been trying to radicalise a friend with her beliefs about “violent jihad”.
Ms Sebbagh also shared four “extreme and concerning” videos.
Alan Meyrick, on behalf of the UK's education secretary, made the decision to ban Ms Sebbagh due to the “seriousness of the allegations found proved against her”.
Key Points
- Protests against President Omar Al Bashir enter their sixth day
- Reports of President Bashir's resignation and arrests of senior government officials
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Price, base / as tested Dh57,000
Engine 1,170cc air/oil-cooled flat twin four-stroke engine
Transmission Six-speed gearbox
Power 110hp) @ 7,750rpm
Torque 116Nm @ 6,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined 5.3L / 100km
The biog
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Favourite spice: Cumin
Family: mother, three sisters, three brothers and a two-year-old daughter
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- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
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Rating: 2/5
Fighting with My Family
Director: Stephen Merchant
Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Nick Frost, Lena Headey, Florence Pugh, Thomas Whilley, Tori Ellen Ross, Jack Lowden, Olivia Bernstone, Elroy Powell
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Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S
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Polarised public
31% in UK say BBC is biased to left-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is biased to right-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is not biased at all
Source: YouGov
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
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Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
THREE
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Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
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Six large-scale objects on show
- Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
- The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
- A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
- A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
- Torrijos Palace dome
