A Muslim father has today been jailed for more than two years and branded a 'bully' after he stormed into a Catholic school and abused a head teacher over a religious row about beards.
Mohammad Liaqat also shoulder barged a headmaster at another school in a racist tirade in front of parents, who were picking up their children.
The first incident happened at Mount Carmel Roman Catholic High School in Accrington, after two 14-year-old Muslim pupils were banned from lessons for refusing to shave off their beards.
Liaqat, 34, was angered by the decision, despite his children not actually being involved in the case and the matter had also been resolved.
During the rampage he hurled insults at white teachers in front of the shocked.
He was ordered to stay away from the school after being arrested over the incident, but went on to continue his rant at another school close by.
Burnley Crown Court heard he later turned up at St Oswald's RC Primary School, also in Lancashire, where another of his children was a pupil.
He approached headteacher Jeff Brown and embarked on yet another racist rant.
When Mr Brown asked him to leave, Liaqat assaulted him.
Jailing him, Recorder Anthony Cross QC, said that Liaqat was a ‘bully’ after a three-week trial found him guilty of racially-aggravated threatening behaviour and an assault charge following a three-day trial at Burnley last April.
Mr Recorder Cross also issued a restraining order against the defendant banning him from contact with staff at four schools in the Accrington and Burnley areas.
He is banned from going within 100 yards of either Mount Carmel or St Oswald’s schools, and Accrington St Peter’s Primary, and Rosehill Special School in Burnley.
Denise Fitzpatrick, defending, said her client, faced a number of issues in his personal life, including the care of a seriously-ill daughter, who attended a special school locally.
After talks with governors at Mount Carmel, the pair who refused to remove their facial hair had their ban rescinded as the teenagers were studying a Hafiz education programme at their local mosque. The practice is when Muslim men memorise the Qur'an.
Headteacher, Xavier Bowers, said his school worked hard to maintain community cohesion.
He added: “My staff were simply doing their job at the time, supervising our children leaving school and making sure they were safe.
“Without provocation, they were verbally assaulted an abused in front of the children and parents.”
Following the conviction, St Oswald's head, Mr Brown, said: “I’m looking forward to being able to move on from this unfortunate incident and getting back to normal school life.
A Lancashire Police spokesman said that the force was satisfied with the sentence imposed for the offence, which had seen Liaqat repeatedly refer to Mount Carmel as a ‘racist school’ while abusing white members of staff.
“We are committed to tackling all crime motivated by hostility and prejudice and we would urge anyone who has been a victim of a hate crime to have the confidence to come forward and report it to police,” added the spokesman.
PC Dave Hall, of the force's hate crime and community cohesion unit, said: “What he did was completely unacceptable. Whatever his motives, we cannot accept this kind of behaviour.”
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