JEDDAH, 27 October 2003 — Ahmed Al-Hamoudi, director of the King Fahd Academy in Bonn, has said there was no need to close the Arabic school, which has been operating with official permission of German authorities.

“Over the years we have never heard any complaint about our academy,” Hamoudi was quoted as saying by the London-based Al-Hayat Arabic newspaper. “There is no reason to stop teaching there,” he insisted.

But the director said he was ready to counter any suspicions about the academy and its activities. “Our academic channels are open and we are ready to cooperate in any field,” he said. Hamoudi’s statement came amid reports that German authorities were planning to close the institution next week. “We have not had any official notice from German authorities,” he said.

The DPA news agency said the German federal government had voiced support for state authorities in Cologne who plan to close the school.

“The likelihood that the school will be shut has significantly grown in the past few days,” Katja Pustowka, a spokeswoman for the schools inspectorate, told the German news agency. The German magazine Der Spiegel said the authorities were standing by to counsel parents about state schools in the Cologne area that could take over the education of the children at short notice.

Under pressure from German authorities, the school has already suspended an instructor who allegedly used Friday prayers to exhort his young listeners to engage in a holy war against the West.

But Anas Beiram, a German of Lebanese origin, has denied the allegation. “I was talking about the duty of parents in bringing up their children,” Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, quoted him as saying. He stopped giving sermons at the academy’s mosque on Oct. 6.

Dr. Mahmoud Abdul Wahab, chairman of the school’s parents committee, denounced the media campaign against the academy and said it was part of an ongoing anti-Saudi campaign.

“If they succeed in closing the academy it will set a dangerous precedent,” Abdul Wahab told Asharq Al-Awsat. He urged Arab countries to respond tit for tat if the Germans close the academy in Bonn. There are 36 German schools in Arab states.

The King Fahd Academy, which takes children from grade one to school-leaving age, was ceremonially opened in 1995 with top German officials present.