07 August 2004	Saturday	20 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

LONDON, Aug 6: The British Council, which aims to promote British culture around the world, has suspended one of its press officials over allegations he wrote a series of articles attacking "the black heart of Islam".

The Council, a state-funded body which operates in 110 nations including many Muslim countries, said on Friday it had barred Harry Cummins from work while it investigates the claims.

"All of us who work for the British Council are appalled that our organization should in any way be associated with the deeply offensive content of these articles," a British Council spokesman said.

He said Harry Cummins had denied writing the articles, which appeared under the name Will Cummins in the conservative Sunday Telegraph newspaper during July. Mr Cummins was suspended on July 29 after the Guardian newspaper named him as the author.

The four articles were opinion pieces which, among other things, asserted that "Islam is not, or not only, a religion" and that it was instead "a supranational army and state".

One of them said that all Muslims, "like all dogs", shared certain characteristics and that people in Britain feared the religion. "It is the black heart of Islam, not its black face, to which millions object," another article said.

The articles, which the Telegraph published alongside other opinion pieces offering a more complimentary view of Britain's two million Muslims, triggered scores of complaints. -Reuters