Teacher jailed for life over child jihadist plot struck off from profession

As this specimen has been inside for 5 years one wonders why and how it took the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) so long to deal with him. From The Telegraph

A teacher who was jailed for life after he used Islamic State (IS) propaganda in attempts to build an army of child jihadists to carry out terror attacks in London appeared at a misconduct hearing before he was struck off from the profession.

addressed a disciplinary panel convened by the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) five years after he was sentenced to a minimum of 25 years in prison for multiple terror offences.

In 2018, the Old Bailey heard Haque, then 25, made children aged between 11 and 14 act out battles between police and the IS fighters he idolised while teaching at Ripple Road Mosque in Barking.

He was employed at the Lantern of Knowledge School in East London for around six months before he was arrested at Heathrow attempting to travel to Syria to join Islamic State.

Appearing on the first day of the virtual hearing, Haque said: “It does not bother me an inch that the Teaching Regulation Agency seeks to impose upon me a lifetime ban from teaching for indeed I will merely be re-employed by The Islamic Caliphate (The Islamic State) in the future…”

He refused to appear for days two and three of the hearing and have representation and has now been banned from the classroom for life.

This week the Teaching Regulation Agency revealed Haque would often discuss Islamic State terrorist incidents once or twice a week at The Lantern of Knowledge School.

He was employed as a teacher at the school from around July 2015 to January 2016. The hearing was told Haque had contact with more than 200 children aged between nine and 16 with 55 of those identified as having been exposed to extremism and attempts at radicalisation.