A teacher at an Islamic Sunday school “saw it as her duty” to spread jihad among children with a “cartoon-style” book, a court heard.
Dzhamilya Timaeva, 19, allegedly obtained a role as a teacher at the Sunday school in order to spread “extremist beliefs” about holy war to young children, jurors were told.
Police who arrested the teenager found notes on her phone, including one entitled “Permissibility of Suicidal Operations”, and a document called the Little Muwahideen, with a colourful cartoon-style front cover designed for children, the Old Bailey heard.
It was alleged the book included sections on waging war for Islam, as well as reference to “fitna” (which often refers to a heretical uprising in the Quran).
Opening the trial on Tuesday, prosecutor Gareth Weetman accused Timaeva of sharing “pro-IS [Islamic State] propaganda” in 2022-23.
‘Intolerant notions’
“The defendant saw it as her duty to teach these extremist beliefs to young children. In order to do so, she obtained a place as a teacher at an Islamic Sunday school,” he told the court.
In Sept 2022, Timaeva had been making arrangements to teach a class of children at an Islamic faith school and made reference to the booklet in planned lessons, the court heard.
She sent an electronic copy of the book to a contact at the Tawheed Islamic Education Centre in Maidenhead and had 70 copies printed, it was claimed.
Mr Weetman said: “It follows that this clearly wasn’t a distant dream of the defendant to teach young children the extremist and intolerant notions in this book. She had printed it and arranged to attend the classes to do so.”
Jurors heard the defendant had also wanted to gain access to children at the Windsor Muslim Association which allegedly listed her as a teacher on its website in March 2023.
‘Little Muwahideen booklets’
Mr Weetman said copies of the Little Muwahideen booklet were found in a search of the defendant’s home last March 2. But it was clear that more copies had already been distributed by the defendant, he said.
In an email sent the day after her arrest, she said: “They took my Little Muwahideen booklets.
“All praise is to Allah that I gave out so many not long ago, they only found a few copies at my house.”
Meanwhile, a teacher at the defendant’s school found her alone in an office trying to hide shredded paper in the shelves of a cupboard, jurors were told. These strips were pieced back together and found to be about jihad, Mr Weetman said.
Timaeva has denied four counts of dissemination of terrorist publications including “Little Muwahideen” and possessing a video for terrorist purposes entitled “Incite the Believers”.
The trial was adjourned until Thursday.
