London, Feb. 20: A number of Muslim schools are promoting Islamic extremism and encouraging pupils to grow up despising Britain, a think tank report has claimed.

Youngsters are discouraged from playing cricket and board games, listening to western music and even reading Shakespeare plays or Harry Potter books by fanatics targeting classrooms, the research says.

Some children are even being told to shun "the evil system of western culture" and encouraged to live in "ghettos".

The vile diktats appear on school websites or on other Internet sites linked directly to school sites and operated by fundamentalist groups.

Critics last night called for strict vetting of Muslim education to root out extremist influence. Moderate Muslim groups welcomed the findings and called for the attempts by extremists to target children to be stamped out.

The propaganda is highlighted in a report called Music, Chess and Other Sins from the Westminster-based think tank Civitas.

Author Denis MacEoin investigated hundreds of school websites and Islamic websites linked to schools to uncover the material.

He made clear that only a small number of the more than 120 Muslim schools in Britain were involved. But those that were posed a serious threat to social cohesion, he said. (ANI)