Said Shehata, 43, claims that he suffered “discrimination, victimisation and unfair treatment” from his managers and editors as a result of his religion.
He brought his case after missing out on a permanent job as a senior broadcast journalist at BBC Arabic, the oldest and largest of the Corporation’s non-English language services, while nine Muslim colleagues were chosen.
The successful candidates included an employee who was responsible for a television news bulletin that wrongly announced the death of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez two months before he actually died, the hearing in central London was told.
Mr Shehata, who is Egyptian by birth, lectured in Middle Eastern politics and international relations at London Metropolitan University before joining the BBC in 2007.
He has appeared as an analyst on Islamic movements and Arabic politics on television and radio, including BBC channels, and was commended by Peter Horrocks, the BBC’s director of global news, after winning an internal award for his work in January 2012.