Pyne wants answers on Muslim principal
AFTER claiming publicly that Islamic State is an Israeli-American conspiracy, the principal of Melbourne’s largest Muslim college has come under fire from federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne, amid accusations that the educator has a sordid track record of anti-Semitism.
When it comes to outrageous conduct regarding Israel and Jews, Omar Hallak, principal of Al-Taqwa College, allegedly has form. A teacher formerly working at the college told media last week he witnessed the principal delivering a diatribe against Israel to students during a class.
Pyne slammed the principal’s Islamic State comments and signalled he would seek an explanation from Al-Taqwa College.
“The comments of the Al-Taqwa College principal are wrong and damaging,” Pyne told The AJN. “I will be writing to the school seeking an explanation and I will write to the State Minister [James Merlino] asking what action the Victorian Department of Education is taking as the relevant registration authority.”
Hallak’s comments about Islamic State were condemned by Merlino and Victoria’s Liberal education spokesperson Nick Wakeling last month, and the principal has now been summoned to a meeting with Victorian Education Department officials.
According to a teacher, Ajit Somers, who taught at Al-Taqwa in 2001, Hallak had given students an assignment to research a country of their choice, and when one pupil chose Israel, he was lambasted by Hallak.
The teacher said Hallak angrily exclaimed that “there is no such thing as Israel” and that “Jews are horrible people”.
Other teachers have come forward after Fairfax Media revealed Hallak’s rant about Islamic State’s Israel–US ties, raising concerns that Hallak once threatened to sack a teacher who had drawn a star on a whiteboard rewarding good work, which resembled the Star of David, deriding it as “a Jew symbol”, and that non-Muslim teachers at the school were discriminated against.
The school, at Truganina in Melbourne’s outer west, received more than $11 million in federal funding in 2013 and almost $5 million from the Victorian Government.
PETER KOHN
Omar Hallak.
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