AN Islamic RAF instructor has sparked a row by criticising air strikes on Libya.

Dr Joel Hayward, the dean of the Royal Air Force’s elite officer training college in Cranwell, Lincolnshire, taught Prince William in 2008.

Despite teaching the pilots sent on operations against Colonel Gaddafi, he has warned of them becoming “the air corps of a rebel army” of which Nato has little knowledge.

He wrote in Muslim lifestyle magazine Emel: “Even if they have saved dozens or hundreds of civilian lives, western armed forces should not now be tempted into becoming what their critics already see them as – the air corps of a rebel army... Preventing civilian deaths in Benghazi is one thing; militarily supporting the armed resistance of people Nato knows almost nothing about is quite another.”

Dr Hayward is employed by King’s College London, not the RAF. Yesterday, he said: “I write articles on a range of subjects. In no sense am I anti-Western, I am proud to be Western, I strongly believe in the value system we have.”

Express.co.uk, August 8, 2011