North Yorkshire anti-terror staff taught that the Virgin Mary 'wore a hijab' in taxpayer-funded training session

From the Newshound archive · first published 30 September 2026 · last updated 1 October 2026.

Counter-terrorism staff at North Yorkshire Council were told during a publicly funded Islamophobia seminar that 'Mother Mary wore a hijab' and that 'Jesus grew a beard'. The session, part of a programme called Project Unity, was delivered by Abbas Najib, former police officer and chief executive of charity Better Communities Bradford. Najib has since defended the claim, saying 'we stand by' the remarks and arguing that head covering is 'a shared tradition across faiths and cultures, not something foreign or unique to Islam.'

Mary lived roughly six centuries before Islam emerged — historians say she likely wore a Jewish head covering, not the Islamic hijab.

Project Unity has reportedly been delivered to over 2,500 people including police officers and civil servants handling the Government's Prevent counter-extremism programme.

The training also asserted the hijab 'was prevalent in the UK only 100 years ago', using images of early 20th-century British shawls that had no connection to Islamic practice.