'Muslim convert' UK RAF University head slammed for focusing more on 'Islamist activities'

London, Aug 8 (ANI): The head of studies at Britain's Royal Air Force pilot training college is a Muslim convert who has criticised NATO air strikes on Libya, and has been focusing more on Islamist activities that have nothing to do with the training.

Dr Joel Hayward, dean of the college at Cranwell, has taught many of the pilots spearheading the military operation against Colonel Gaddafi, the Daily Mail reports.

However, to the dismay of British defence chiefs, Hayward has cast doubt on the belief that the NATO actions have averted the mass killing of civilians, the paper said.

He criticized the air strikes in a magazine article on Libya, published under the headline 'The West runs the risks of its good intentions (and inconsistencies) leading to distrust'.

"When western aircrafts began to destroy tanks and a downpour of missiles wrecked Libya's air force and air defence system, various leaders congratulated themselves for preventing an 'atrocity' or 'slaughter' - evocative words which conjured up images of a Srebrenica-style massacre," New Zealand born Hayward wrote.

Describing the resolution as 'elastic', he said, 'that resolution condemned human rights abuses and torture to which the world and the UN had turned a blind eye for decades,' the paper said.

His views and behaviour have caused disquiet among senior officers at RAF Cranwell, where he is the most senior academic and taught Prince William.

In a letter entitled 'The Air Force Ayatollah', one senior officer expressed concern that Hayward was focusing more on 'Islamist activities that are nothing to do with the RAF'.

He also accused him of giving Muslim cadets preferential treatment and making other students take a 'softly, softly line when writing about Muslim terrorists/Islamist extremists'.

The paper said that Hayward has denied to 'recognise' the allegations.

Hayward has previously expressed remorse after appearing to claim that far fewer Jews were killed by the Nazis than generally thought and that the gas chambers of the Holocaust were British propaganda. (ANI)