Anger at professor's race claims

A new textbook that is required reading for university students of psychology in Madrid describes blacks as "primitive and inferior to whites" and Asians as "slow and stupid". Outraged students have demanded the book be withdrawn and its author penalised.

The book, by Guillermo Quintana, Professor of Educational Psychology at Complutense University, include the assertion that "Islam is internally violent" and that the former Socialist leader Felipe Gonzalez is "paranoid". The Psychology of Personality and its Disturbances is described in a prologue by Torcuato Luca de Tena, scion of an influential publishing family, as "a great work". But its assertions are unsupported by evidence.

"It was practically compulsory to buy the book," says Raquel Jimeno, a student of Professor Quintana. "The Professor assured us that it contained the content of his classes, and those who couldn't attend would certainly pass his course just by reading it."

The Rector of the university, Rafael Puyol, said he would deplore any racial slurs, though had not read the book.