A SCHOOL has spoken out following claims that a Muslim cleric used it to preach jihad while touring the UK.

Masood Azhar gave a talk at the Darul Uloom boarding school in Holcombe in 1993 in which he allegedly told young Muslims that the Koran encouraged murder.

The talk was part of a UK tour organised by the Deobandi sect, Britain’s largest Islamic group, which controls almost half of the UK’s 1,600 mosques.

The allegations have been made in a BBC Radio Four programme The Deobandis, which bases its claims on a magazine interview uncovered in Pakistan.

Mr Azhar, who has been identified as a terrorist by India and alleged by other governments to have links to al Qaida, was allowed to visit 42 mosques during his month-long tour.

At the Darul Uloom boarding school in Holcombe, he is reported to have taught children in a talk entitled “O my dear Prophet, do murders”, that large parts of the Koran urged “murders for the sake of Allah”.

The programme alleges that shortly before his arrival in Britain, he provided Osama bin Laden with jihadi fighters to carry out terror attacks in Somalia.

His UK tour is alleged to have acted as a recruitment drive and raised large amounts of money for his cause.

A spokesman for Darul Uloom said: “Masood misused the noble Qur’aan to cause maximum damage and tarnish not only Islam and Muslims but the whole of humanity in a manner no one else has to date.

“In those days, mosques had an open-to-all policy and anyone could easily arrange for any speech without any vetting whatsoever taking place and thus Darul Uloom, like all the other mosques at the time, was also an easy target and victim.

“It was shortly after his visit, and well before any legislation, that the trustees decided that no one will be allowed to make a speech at Darul Uloom without explicit official invitation from Darul Uloom; a policy well known throughout the Muslim community.

“It was after Masood’s visit that the trustees took every step possible of safeguarding Darul Uloom and especially its students from such extremists and their ideology.

“In order to achieve our aim, we revisited our curriculum, increased subjects in the secular studies and instilled within our students an aspiration for their entire focus to be remained on their education only; the fruits of which have been made obvious in our recent Ofsted report.”

Reportedly among those at his sermons were Omar Saeed Sheikh, who went on to behead American journalist Daniel Pearl in Afghanistan.

Hosted by the Deobandis, an apparently moderate movement that teaches an orthodox view of Islam, Azhar, then aged 25, preached in London, Birmingham, Lancashire and Yorkshire during his tour.

Details of the trip were recorded at the time by a British Deobandi scholar and published in a magazine in Pakistan, which has since been uncovered by the BBC and shared with The Times newspaper.

Its report brings into question arguments that mainstream Islam in the UK has had little to do with radicalisation and creating extremists.

According to the newspaper, Azhar promoted hatred for Christians, Hindus and Jews and glorified murders “for the sake of Allah”.

During one seminar in London, he is reported to have told Muslims that “if seeking glory for the name of Allah is fundamentalism and terrorism, then we were fundamentalists and terrorists yesterday, we are fundamentalists and terrorists today and will be... tomorrow”.

The Deobandi movement was founded in India in the 19th century.

A Deobandi spokesman told the Times: “We strongly condemn the activities of Masood Azhar and do not agree with his views.”

A two-part documentary, The Deobandis, aired on BBC Radio 4 at 9am on Tuesday and the second half will air on Tuesday, April 12.

Deobandi Scholars in the UK said it condemns “in the strongest terms all forms of hate speech, violence, radicalisation, and involvement in terrorism, whether home or abroad”.