British taxpayers are complaining about an Islamic school that has funneled more than $1 million in money that was to go for repairs to an all-male school in Pakistan instead.
Al-Hijrah School in Birmingham, England, has been placed under "special measures" after being branded as "inadequate" in an inspectors' report, and a month later its entire governing body was fired over several financial woes, including a $1.4 million budget deficit,
The Daily Mail reports.
Instead of using money to make needed repairs to its own building, the school is accused of spending at least $1.5 million in trust funds to build the boys-only school in Ziarat, which is 240 miles from the Afghanistan border. That school opened in 2004, and appears to be thriving.
The British school's website says the facility there provides an environment where children can "develop their Islamic principles," but also offers a seven-minute video that asks the public to donate to the school in Pakistan.
According to the narrator, that school can offer free board and lodging to students in its poverty-stricken region, but only with continued donations from citizens to the Al-Hijrah Trust UK.
Meanwhile, the British school is "falling apart, its roof is leaking and there is little space for outdoor play," an insider told The Daily Mail, and that it "beggars belief" that the trust has instead used its money to build the Pakistan school.
The British school opened in 1988 and started securing funding from the Birmingham, England City Council in 2002.
The council confirmed that it is investigating the school's finances, including allegations that it used public cash for the school in Pakistan.
"We were concerned about the severe deficit the school has got itself into and where that money might be going," a council representative said.
"We put a board in place in the school with access to financial records and we carried out a retrospective investigation ... If we find anything criminal it will be referred to the police."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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