SAUDIS PREACH ANGLOPHOBIA SHOCK

Pupils aged five "posioned" at Islamic school that teaches hate blared the front page of today's early-edition Evening Standard.

A former teacher claimed textbooks used by children as young as five at the King Fahad Academy in Acton describe Jews as "repugnant" and "apes" and Christians as "pigs".

After going on to outline the usual Wahhabisms it mentions that it's an independent school set up by the Saudi government to educate their own off-spring. While it may be true the school is preaching hate, the impression one might have garnered from the headline - that it is a typical Islamic school, doubtless about to receive state funding - is therefore somewhat misleading. Ofsted wouldn't even grant it full "independent" status.

So is this Islamophobia?

Whereas xenophobia is defined as an irrational fear of foreigners, in modern usage it is has slipped into meaning "dislike" and definitions of Islamophobia reflect this.

But I don't think the Standard headline was about dislike (and therefore Islamophobia) as much as old fashioned fear. Because, rightly or wrongly, people are afraid. And hate-filled 5-year-olds don't help, whatever country they come from.