Catholic-college pupils join jihad

A senior priest has raised questions over the extent to which educational institutions in Wales are using government guidelines to tackle radicalisation of students, after two students who attended a Catholic sixth-form college went to Syria to join the terrorist group Isis.

Two of the three British men in the jihadi recruitment video posted by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) had attended the same Catholic college in Cardiff.

Nasser Muthana and Reyaad Khan, both 20, are seen in the 13-minute Isis video calling on other British Muslims to join the fighting in Syria and Iraq.

They both attended St David’s Catholic Sixth-Form College, Cardiff. According to The Times, Muthana and Khan also attended the Al-Manar Centre in Cardiff, aligned to the ultra-conservative Salafi wing of Islam whose ­followers include terrorist Abu Hamza. St David’s is the only Catholic sixth-form college in Wales. The college operates on the principles of “tolerance and respect” for those of other faiths and none, although admissions priority is given to students from Catholic secondary schools.

Of the 1,550 full-time students aged 16-19 at St David’s, 56 per cent are Catholics while 22 per cent of students are from minority ethnic groups.

Fr Gareth Jones, Catholic chaplain and coordinating chaplain at Cardiff University, who has close links with Muslim community leaders, raised questions about the extent to which educational institutions had implemented ­government guidelines to combat radicalisation.

He referred specifically to a 2009 toolkit published by the UK education department. The Archdiocese of Cardiff said St David’s would have taken account of such guidance and there has been no suggestion that the young men were radicalised at the ­college. Fr Jones said Cardiff’s Muslim community will be “as shocked as anyone” at the latest evidence of radicalisation. “Cardiff does seem to have attracted preachers who certainly are not building up the common good, preachers who seem to be ­belligerent or encouraging men to go off and fight wars in foreign parts,” he added.

Speaking about the former pupils, Mark Leighfield, principal of St David’s, said: “One left the college in July 2011 and one left the college in July 2012. They were not in the same teaching or pastoral-care groups.”