Former principal claims he was dismissed for being ‘white Christian’

Employment tribunal: Professor Malory Nye and his wife.

The former principal of a Dundee college who claims he was sacked for being a white Christian broke down as he claimed a colleague forced him out of his post.

Professor Malory Nye, 47, is claiming unfair dismissal against the Al-Maktoum Institute on racial and religious grounds.

Prof Nye told an employment tribunal in Dundee that the college's director of operations, Abubaker G. Abubaker, was plotting to have him dismissed from his £67,000 a year post.

Both Prof Nye and his wife Isabel Campbell-Nye, 42, were in tears as he gave evidence on the third day of an employment tribunal.

Prof Nye was dismissed from the Al-Maktoum College of Higher Education in Dundee, which claims to promote multiculturalism, in November last year.

He was suspended just days after the name of the institute was changed from the Al-Maktoum Institute for Arabic and Islamic studies.

The patron of the college is the deputy ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

The academic is claiming unfair dismissal against his former employers on racial and religious grounds.

Mr Abubaker aired a series of grievances about Professor Nye to Labour peer Lord Thomas Murray Elder, chancellor of the college and a close friend of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Professor Nye said there were "tensions" among staff at the institution in the months prior to his departure and a "culture of bullying and intolerance" as a result of the behaviour of Mr Abubaker and others.

Professor Nye, who is representing himself, became highly emotional as he described how Mr Abubaker sat "stony faced" during the showing of a DVD his wife had helped make, involving visiting students from Dubai singing the Scottish song Caledonia.

Mrs Campbell-Nye, who taught English to foreign students at the college, claims she too was dismissed because of her relationship with Prof Nye.

She will take her case, alleging sexual, racial and religious discrimination, to a separate tribunal to be held in Dundee next month.

Prof Nye said: "The good work [Mrs Campbell-Nye] did was greatly appreciated by all who watched the DVD apart from one person. Mr Abubaker sat stony-faced when it was shown. I believe Mr Abubaker was trying to put me out of my post as principal. I think he worked very hard at this between February and June 2011."

The tribunal continues.

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