An eight-year-old schoolboy has been awarded £3,500 in compensation after teachers wrongly assumed he was wearing a T-shirt in support of Isis.
The pupil came to class at a Tower Hamlets school wearing the top which read: “I want to be like Abu Bakr al-Siddique”, a much-loved and respected figure in Islam.
But staff reported him to social services who took him for formal questioning, concerned that his T-shirt referred to terror group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
As the world’s most wanted man, the US State Department is offering $25 million for information that could lead to his capture or death.
Abu Bakr al-Siddique, born in Mecca in 573, was an honourable leader, businessman and close friend to Prophet Muhammad, and remains an important figure within Islam.
According to The Sun, the boy’s mother says social services had recorded a caution against the child, and said they had discussed de-radicalisation.
The boy, now aged 11, was left traumatised by the experience and is now reluctant to speak up in class, according to his family.
Tower Hamlets council in east London paid the £3,500 for a breach of the 1988 Human Rights Act.
A spokeswoman for the council said: “There is a confidentiality agreement in relation to this insurance settlement and we are unable to comment.”