A racist attack at an Islamic school in Newcastle in which swastikas and anti-Muslim graffiti were spray-painted on walls has left staff fearful about entering the building, the headteacher has said.

Principal Muhammed Abdulmuheet said staff were afraid to attend Friday prayers at Bahr academy because of the hateful language of the attack.

“We don’t know if they want to physically harm us,” he said. “This has happened so many times now, it is only so long until the building is burned down.”

Police entered the building on Friday morning and found copies of the Qur’an on the floor and the walls daubed with the words “moslem terorists” [sic]. The incident is being treated as a hate crime.

The building, formerly the set of the children’s TV programme Byker Grove, has been targeted repeatedly by vandals since it was announced that it would be turned into an Islamic school in 2010. Abdulmuheet said broken windows and burglaries were “normal” for the building.

Former members of the cast and crew of Byker Grove have rallied around the school to raise donations of more than £1,000 to help with the cost of repairs.

“We just want to help them heal,” said the show’s former artistic director Anna Mcgrath. “The thought that children have to see this in their school, place of worship and neighbourhood is horrible and has to be traumatising.”

The site is being refurbished and does not currently have students on-site. Abdulmuheet said tighter security controls would be needed before students are safe there, but hopes to open the gates in the next year.



The school is expecting a visit from the bishop of Newcastle on Tuesday. Abdulmuheet said: “We have been overwhelmed by the support, from the police, councillors and everyone on social media. It gives us hope that we are not alone, we are united against this type of hate.”



Despite the “emotional damage” caused by the attack, he offered forgiveness to the vandals. “We want to speak to them, and for them to know they shouldn’t be frightened of us,” he said. “We feel we can’t blame them if they don’t know better. We want to say, let’s talk, let’s educate them on what they have been misinformed of [about us].”



