October 26, 2003	Sunday	Sha’aban 29, 1424

BONN, Oct 25: German authorities plan this coming week to order the closure of a Saudi-funded private school in the suburbs of Bonn amid mounting allegations of Islamic radicalism at the school, according to a published report.

The report in Der Spiegel news magazine, due to hit newsstands on Monday, quotes state and federal officials in Germany as saying the school has become a hotbed of radical ideology.

Under pressure from German authorities, the school already has suspended an instructor who allegedly used Friday prayers to exhort his young listeners to engage in a Jihad holy war against the West.

The King Fahd Academy, which takes children from grade one to school-leaving age, was ceremonially opened in 1995 with top German officials present. But authorities are said to have become alarmed at a growing focus on religious indoctrination over educational curriculum.

Islamists, many of whom have been closely monitored by German police since the September 11 attacks, reportedly have been moving to live in Bonn so their children could attend the school.

Education officials say the academy devotes eight periods a week to religious studies but only four periods to mathematics, and its pupils’ knowledge falls well short of German educational standards.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who visited Saudi Arabia earlier this month, is said to have raised the issue with officials in Riyadh. German officials said he was assured the radical tone at the school would be checked.

The lavishly appointed school and mosque is built of alabaster- coloured stone with gold-coloured ornaments. Bonn officials say it has 470 pupils enrolled, just under 200 of whom are German nationals.—dpa