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Education Secretary appoints former counter-terrorism officer to investigate school 'takeover plot'

Education Secretary appoints former counter-terrorism officer to investigate school 'takeover plot'

Categories: Latest News

Wednesday April 16 2014

The Daily Mail, The Guardian, BBC News, ITV News and local paper, the Birmingham Mail, publish further coverage on the alleged school plot ‘Trojan Horse’ to ‘takeover’ and ‘Islamicise’ schools in Birmingham.

The Department of Education has confirmed that several schools are under investigation, extending the number to 25, following allegations of ‘forcing out’ non-Muslim members of staff, gender segregation of students and promoting Al-Qaeda teachings in assemblies. Ofsted have already undertaken two snap inspections in schools said to be implicated in the alleged plot.

The investigation follows an anonymous letter which allegedly outlined a plot by Muslim extremists to take over and ‘Islamicise’ schools in Birmingham. Authorities have not yet confirmed whether the document is genuine and individuals implicated have strenuously denied the veracity of the letter claiming it a hoax and the plot a fanciful idea.

Tahir Alam, one of those mentioned in the ‘Trojan Horse’ plot, said “I believe it is a witch-hunt based on all sorts of false allegations which have been repeated over many weeks.

“I also believe it is motivated by anti-Muslim, anti-Islam sentiment that is also sort of feeding this frenzy”.

Other allegations have also emerged after members of staff at Park View Academy, speaking anonymously on a BBC Radio 4 Today programme, said that a senior colleague at the school had endorsed the teachings of Anwar al-Awlaki in school assemblies.

According to the Daily Mail, the education secretary Michael Gove, is believed to have taken a ‘personal interest’ in the investigation, which is probing into both faith schools and secular establishments.

Although a Guardian article notes that an anonymous source also told the Sunday Times last month that one of the school’s invested £70,000 on “playground loudspeakers to summon pupils to Islamic prayers”, it notes the views of a governor and trustee of Park View school for over 15 years, David Hughes.

Hughes self-identifies as a “white, practising Anglican Christian”, and tells the Guardian “in all my time as a governor we have not received a single complaint about ‘extremism’ or ‘radicalism’. If we had we would have investigated it openly and thoroughly.”

Hughes also reveals that he “chaired the Disciplinary Panel that recommended the dismissal of Michael White [a staff member] for his unprofessional behaviour as a senior teacher. At no time either during that panel, or subsequently, has he made allegations of a ‘Muslim plot’, until now.

“Equally Mr Sloan, who claimed in a Sunday newspaper this weekend that he saw ‘anti-American assemblies’ in the late 1990s that were ‘mind-blowing’, made no complaints at the time and has not done so since, until now.

“Mr Sloan was suspended from Park View while complaints from parents that he had referred to their children during lessons in the most derogatory terms could be investigated… He resigned before a full investigation could be conducted.”

Birmingham’s ten MPs have come together to demand the Department of Education launch a joint inquiry with the Birmingham Council to investigate into the claims. They have urged that the findings from Ofsted’s inspections be published “quickly and thoroughly” and warned lessons need to be learned about the way schools are inspected and governed.

The decision by the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, to invite a former counter-terrorism officer to lead the inquiry has attracted considerable criticism from West Midlands Police force with Chief Constable, Chris Sims, saying “This is a desperately unfortunate appointment. Peter Clarke has many qualities but people will inevitably draw unwarranted conclusions from his former role as national coordinator for counter terrorism.”

“This is about governance of schools, it’s about social cohesion and the implications for schools operating in an area that’s predominantly from one ethnicity.”

He added, “I want to be absolutely clear… that this scrutiny hasn’t become a counter-terrorism investigation.”

The Police and Crime Commissioner for West Midlands, Bob Jones, added that the appointment was an attempt by Gove to deflect criticism from his failed ‘school academy’ policies. A view which is echoed by the National Union of Teachers who have asserted that the issue was not a Muslim or religious problem in schools but an ‘academy problem.’

Neil Elkes, of the Birmingham Post, asks “if there would be the same furore if an academy’s business sponsor was using its influence to, for example indoctrinate pupils against climate change, or if an evangelical Christian sponsor was removing evolution from the curriculum?”.

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