Sunday, April 20, 2014

The Trojan Horse rolls into Birmingham

It all started with an anonymous letter. These days it is actually safer to put pen to paper since no electronic trail can be established and all the fancy govt spyware is for nowt.

The letter claims- boys and girls were segregated in classrooms and assemblies, sex education was banned, and non-Muslim staff were bullied. In one case it was alleged that the teachings of a firebrand al Qaida-linked Muslim preacher were praised to pupils.

This could be a massive hoax or it could be a careful plan by the Wahabbists to replace moderate leadership with militants in schools in Birmingham, Bradford and other locations. The Education Secretary Michael Gove is so worried that he has deputed a special Tzar to investigate the allegations. This has the appearance of an internal power struggle. The Salafists are late-comers to the party but they want all of the cake.
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Twenty-five schools in Birmingham are now under investigation following 200 complaints received by the council in relation to allegations of Islamist "takeovers", according to the leader of the city council

Sir Albert Bore detailed the investigations as he announced the appointment of a new chief adviser to deal exclusively with the fallout from Operation Trojan Horse – a dossier claiming to reveal a plot to "overthrow" teachers and governors in secular state schools in the city and run them on strict Islamic principles.

Birmingham MP Khalid Mahmood said 20 headteachers in his Perry Barr constituency alone – "virtually all Muslim heads" – had raised concerns about potential plots.

Despite fears the Trojan Horse document was a hoax, Mahmood said he'd been made aware of similar allegations over the past 12 years and that he was confident there had been concerted attempts to take over Birmingham schools by Islamic fundamentalists from the Wahabi or Salafi sect.

Allegations have also emerged involving schools outside Birmingham, including the Laisterdyke Business and Enterprise College in Bradford. It emerged on Monday that Laisterdyke's entire governing body has been sacked by Bradford council amid concerns over poor performance and a "dysfunctional" relationship between governors, including two city councillors, and management.

Kershaw will co-ordinate with the existing Trojan Horse operational group, which is made up of officers from Birmingham city council, West Midlands police, the National Association of Headteachers (NAHT) and the school inspection authority Ofsted.

At the weekend, it emerged that the education secretary, Michael Gove, had personally sent Ofsted in to inspect 15 Birmingham schools in recent weeks, after the allegations first broke.

Concerns over how some of the city's 430 schools were being run first emerged when an anonymous letter known as Operation Trojan Horse was leaked to councils and teaching unions, claiming that a small but radical group of Muslims were pursuing their own agenda in the classrooms, with non-compliant headteachers and governors forced out.

The document, which is unsigned and undated, claimed to have caused "a great amount of organised disruption" in the city, crediting the plan with forcing a change of leadership at four schools.

Since the letter came to light, anonymous whistle-blowers, including former staff, have come forward, making claims that boys and girls were segregated in classrooms and assemblies, sex education was banned, and non-Muslim staff were bullied. In one case it was alleged that the teachings of a firebrand al Qaida-linked Muslim preacher were praised to pupils.

Mohammed Shafiq, Chief Executive of the Ramadhan Foundation urged calm while allowing authorities to continue their investigations. "The allegations of alleged extremist takeover of schools in Birmingham are very serious however there is a wider concern that this is a witch-hunt against the Muslim community." he said.
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Link: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/19/birmingham-schools-pupils-multicultural-britain
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regards

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