An ideological war against UK Muslims in schools?

The UK government investigation into Muslim majority schools set off by an anonymous letter

An ideological war against UK Muslims in schools?

LONDON

A so-called ‘Islamist’ school plot, government leaks, off-the-record briefings, a media scramble and a government-ordered investigation of 25 schools has gripped the U.K.’s second city Birmingham in the last month.

An anonymous letter alleging a secret ‘Trojan horse’ plot to take over Muslim majority schools by ‘Islamists’ was sent to Birmingham city council in March. The letter claimed the supposed secret plot by Muslims was to take over school governing bodies and replace head teachers with ones that agreed with a specific Muslim ideology. Muslims make up 22% of the population of Birmingham.

Investigators from educational watchdog Ofsted were sent into the named schools, followed by investigators from the Department of Education (DfE).

However, the narrative and accusations have rarely been challenged by the British press, and have fuelled the language of Islamophobia against the U.K.’s Muslim community, which makes up 4.8 percent of the population.

The schools in question are based in inner-city Muslim majority areas of Birmingham and therefore have a majority Muslim membership. Anadolu Agency has gained exclusive evidence about the investigations prompted by the letter, which is now believed to be fake.

The Department of Education’s (DfE) response has alarmed many, including West Midlands police. The police called the government’s assignment of a former head of counter-terrorism, Peter Clarke, to the investigation a “desperately unfortunate appointment”.

“Peter Clarke has many qualities but people will inevitably draw unwarranted conclusions from his former role as National Co-ordinator for Counter Terrorism,” said Chief Constable Chris Sims.

A list of DfE investigators passed to AA revealed that one of the leading inspectors sent into investigate the schools, Isthiaq Hussain, was a former member of the controversial Quilliam foundation.  The organization brands itself as a counter-extremism think tank and is run by former members of Hizb ul-Tahrir; a group working to establish an Islamic state. However, Quilliam has been criticized by much of the British Muslim community for feeding anti-Muslim prejudice by marginalizing other Muslim groups.  A 2010 list of groups with terrorist ideologies, drawn up by the Quilliam foundation, included East London Mosque, the Muslim Council of Britain, and a group that worked with the police to improve community relations, the Muslim Safety Forum.  The move was seen as an attempt to malign Muslim groups and individuals. Ishtiaq Hussain was with the controversial think tank until 2009 and now works for the Department of Education.  The DfE did not wish to comment on Hussain’s involvement in the investigation or his connection with the Quilliam foundation.

AA sources at one of the investigated schools said the investigation was “very aggressive” and they believed “the outcome has already been decided.”

“They are asking girls if they are forced to wear the headscarf and if we force them to sit separately to boys,” a source at one of the schools said.

“They asked children how they felt that their school was now inadequate?” a teacher at Park View School told AA. “They asked teachers if they were homophobic.  All the questions were very leading and with a clear agenda behind them,” he added.

Roger King, the National Union of Teachers executive member for Birmingham, has said that he has recieved complaints from NUT members whose schools were been investigated that inspectors had asked inappropriate questions, the Guardian reported.

One of the schools in question, Park View, was rated outstanding by Ofsted in 2012. Chief Inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw said he had had seen “remarkable improvements in outcomes for some of the city’s most deprived young people.”

He said the head Lindsey Clark had shown “inspirational leadership” and “Like all great heads, Clark has put her heart and soul into the school, and the pride and respect of the pupils shines through in everything they do.”

“I reflected on the moral purpose at the heart of schools such as Park View in my speech to the Association of School and College Leaders conference the same day,” he added.

Ofsted investigators have reportedly told school staff that it will now be downgraded to inadequate following the allegations.

There are currently three separate investigations taking place, by Ofsted, DfE, and Birmingham city council.  All this based on a letter that Birmingham city council’s head said was not genuine. Mark Rogers told website Chamberline files, “The letter that sparked all this off is almost certainly spurious. ”

“I think the letter reflects some concerns and potential issues in our communities. I don’t think it is a narrative of historical fact,” he said. “I don’t believe there is a conspiracy. Conspiracy is such a damaging and loaded word. Easy to use, and difficult to prove.”

The DfE report was leaked to the Telegraph and with no apparent mention of the so-called Islamist plot; the media reports discussed Muslim conservatism.

In an article in the Times on 13 April they reported a DfE official saying, “religious conservatism is getting in the way of learning and a balanced curriculum”.

“Extreme religious conservatism often acts as an entry to later problems,” a DfE source said. “A child who is brought up, age eight, nine, 10, believing that you should segregate the sexes and hand out Islamic textbooks is more likely to be radicalized in later life.”

The DfE report was leaked to Andrew Gilligan from the Telegraph.  A journalist on record for denying there was an anti-Muslim backlash following the public murder of a soldier in London in 2013, he has consistently targeted the first elected Muslim Mayor of Tower Hamlets, and says he is opposed to what he calls “Islamism.” The DfE refused to comment on the leaks that are attributed to their department.

The Park View Education Trust said in a statement “We do not know where the ‘leaks’ and ‘briefings’ around these inspections are coming from. However, the fact that they are being attributed to Ofsted (as well as the Department for Education) should be as much a cause for concern for Mr Wilshaw as it is for us, The Park View Education Trust said in a statement. “The credibility of both Ofsted and its inspections is seriously undermined by the suggestion that the agency may be colluding with the media and breaching confidentiality. This would constitute a serious breach of protocol.”

AA sources at the school have called the investigation a “witch hunt” and the term was also used in an online petition asking Michael Gove to ‘stop the racist witch hunt in Birmingham schools’ which has reached more than 1500 signatures.

Observers have felt that Gove’s response to the allegation has owed more to his personal, ideological persuasions about Islam than to upholding standards in education. In 2006 Gove wrote a book entitled Celsius 7/7 in which he argued that Europe should do more to tackle ‘Islamism’.  Arun Kundani, author of ‘The Muslims are coming! Islamophobia, extremism and the domestic war on terror’, told  AA Gove’s “cranky 2006 book Celsius 7/7 recommended Britain carry out assassinations of terrorist suspects to send “a vital signal of resolution”, and said a “temporary curtailment of liberties” would be needed to prevent “Islamism” from destroying Western civilization.”

“Someone with those views cannot be trusted to take a balanced approach to the allegations of a “Muslim takeover” of schools in Birmingham,” Kundani told AA.

William Dalrymple a writer and historian launched a much more scathing attack on Gove when the book was published.

He criticized Gove for having a lack of knowledge and experience in the subject, “Gove has never lived in the Middle East, indeed has barely set foot in a Muslim country. He has little knowledge of Islamic history, theology or culture,” Dalrymple wrote.

He accused the Education Secretary of being “ill-informed” and writing “to fit pre-existing prejudices.”

“Gove’s book is a confused epic of simplistic incomprehension, riddled with more factual errors and misconceptions than any other text I have come across in two decades of reviewing books on this subject,” writes Dalrymple.

Speaking with AA on Michael Gove and the investigation, Dalymple said, “He’s an out and out Islamophobe whose ignorance about the religion is matched only by his hostility.”

In 2002 Michael Gove was the founding chairman of the centre-right conservative think-tank Policy Exchange. In 2007 the organization published a report entitled ‘The Hijacking of British Islam: How extremist literature is subverting mosques in the UK, the report claimed that 26 out of 100 mosques were found to be selling extremist literature.  However, a BBC newsnight report found that some of the receipts used to prove that the books were purchased from mosques had been forged.

Gove is also a founder member of the Henry Jackson Society a controversial think-tank that Muslim organizations have accused of spreading anti-Muslim bigotry.  The think tank’s associate director Douglas Murray recently wrote about how the rise in Muslim birthrate in the UK was a negative thing.  MPs have resigned from the Henry Jackson society after Islamophobic and xenophobic outbursts of Douglas Murray and Alan Mendoza.  In 2013 Murray said that Britain had become a foreign country and that white Britons were a minority.

Department of Education employees have gone onto work for the Henry Jackson Society. In 2012 Emily Dyer joined the Henry Jackson Society leaving the DfE where she worked Higher Executive Officer for the Preventing Extremism Unit, where she wrote several papers on extremism within educational settings.  Before working at the DfE she worked at Policy Exchange where Gove was a founding chairman. In February this year the UK press reported that sources close to close to liberal Democrats schools minister, David Laws accused Gove of a “blatant” attempt to politicize Ofsted after sacking the watchdog’s chairman, Baroness Morgan, the Labour peer. The source said: “David is absolutely furious at the blatant attempts by the Tories to politicize Ofsted.”

It is not only Gove’s connections with Policy Exchange and the Henry Jackson society that has raised concerns, but the choice of advisors to the DfE on the issue of the investigation into the schools has also raised concerns.

On 11 April Maryam Namazie tweeted, “Met with Department for Education advisor about Islamist school in Birmingham and tackling Islamism in schools. No faith schools the answer”.  Namazie is the co-founder of the council of Ex-Muslims, which opposes Islam and Muslims.

Gove’s office refused to comment on why Namazie, an atheist and political campaigner against Muslim organizations, was consulted on an issue of school standards.

Whilst media attentions has been focused on the so-called plot, the fact that 72 percent of the schools’ children are on free school meals in a school with a 75 percent pass rate, one of the highest in the city, has been ignored.  “There has been absolutely no evidence at all of extremism,” a teacher at the school told AA.  “The decision has been made before the inspection.  They will remove the governing body, this is a witch hunt,” said one of the schools governors speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The Ofsted report is due out next month, but in the meantime the school has been receiving racist hate mail.

“How can this even be allowed to happen in this day and age, WE ARE ENGLAND!  If people want to go to school run by Muslims perhaps they should move to a Muslim country. Oh my god close this school and deport you all!” said one email.

On the day the story broke in the media, one school received a phone call asking the school if they wanted to receive a delivery of bacon sandwiches.  The school serves halal meals to 90 percent Muslim students that attend it.

AA contacted the Department of Education but did not receive a response to the specific questions asked in relation to the investigation and links of inspectors and advisors.  Instead AA was presented with the following statement attributed to a DfE spokesperson: “The allegations made in relation to some schools in Birmingham are very serious and we are investigating all evidence put to us in conjunction with Ofsted, Birmingham City Council and the police. It is absolutely vital these investigations are carried out impartially, without pre-judgement. It would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.”

The findings of the investigation are expected to be published next month, but for many the damage has already been done with the leaks in the British press.

One parent told AA, “No one cared when the school was underperforming, now our kids are doing well they want to shut us down.  Everyone in the country thinks that we’re some sort of extremists, we’re not, we just want our kids to have the same chances as everybody else.”

Read the original article published in Anadolu Agency on 25 April 2014

UK mosque row increases community suspicion of police

Police donations to UK mosque raises suspicion about intentions.

UK mosque row increases community suspicion of police

LONDON 

Birmingham is the United Kingdom’s second city and home to a sizeable Muslim community — one that has, at times, had a tense relationship with the city’s police.

In recent years, Birmingham has seen some high-profile terrorism cases: a plot to behead a British soldier; a terror cell that planned 7/7-style attacks and several other convictions for the funding and supporting of terrorism. Many of those arrested, from the Muslim population that makes a fifth of the city’s whole, have been released without charge.

That and the tactics used by the police in these investigations have become a source of controversy and suspicion. ‘Project Champion’ was an initiative to install over 200 cameras, some of them hidden, around mainly Muslim parts of Birmingham and was paid for with a fund earmarked for tackling terrorism. They were later removed after a community outcry against the clandestine and surreptitious nature of the operation.

Such a controversial history means worshippers at Birmingham Central Mosque were shocked when they found out about the mosque’s involvement with West Midlands Police’s counter-terrorism unit. The police donated £5,000 used to buy 50 transmitters the mosque uses to broadcast the call to prayer, sermons and question and answer sessions to people at home or work.

The decision, according to the unit’s Chief Inspector Dale Randle, was made as part of the UK government’s controversial program for tackling violent extremism, Prevent, which was launched after the 7/7 bomb attacks in London. Though Prevent has been seen as a method for spying on communities, Randle says it is actually a way of building engagement within them — which is why he agreed to fund the transmitters when asked by the mosque.

“In return we are given a little bit of air time, previously we’ve worked with radio stations and purchased airtime and advertising time, and this is a little bit similar,” said Randle. “We can work with the mosque and do some Q&A sessions and talk through some of what we do, and hopefully break down any barriers.”

Muhammad Ali, the mosque administrator, said it has a good relationship with the police. “There are many organizations involved and we have many sponsors, the police is just one of them.”

“We have not told our congregation yet,” admitted Ali.

When told about the program, several mosque attendees said they were shocked. One of them, Faisal, told the Anadolu Agency: “It’s a concern to me, why are the police involved in the first place?”

Jahan Mahmood, a historian who has advised authorities on radicalization at a local and national level told the AA that many Muslims view Prevent with suspicion. “Many Muslims were deeply annoyed by the fact that the Prevent agenda appeared to be entirely focused on Muslims,” he said, adding, “West Midlands Police have a history of mishaps when it comes to dealing with Prevent and the Muslim matters.”

“In the early stages of Prevent in Birmingham, West Midlands Police seconded one of their officers to Birmingham City Council to head outreach projects. This aroused suspicion. Then there were rumors that West Midlands Police were visiting nurseries looking for early signs of radicalization in children as young as 5,” he told the AA, adding that after the fallout from Project Champion “West Midlands Police and Muslim relations haven’t quite been the same.”

Randall said that suspicion is why his counter-terrorism unit invested in the transmitters.

“If we can help explain why we do things, as best as we can, it sometimes helps communities understand what we do,” he said.

One of the issues they want to talk about is humanitarian aid trips to Syria, after the government revealed its concerns about UK nationals fighting in Syria’s civil war.

“It gives us a good space to talk around Syria, which is a real issue at the moment. Which is certainly having an impact on the local community, regionally and nationally,” said Randall.

Steve Jolly a leading campaigner and activist against Project Champion still views the police with suspicion, claiming that “listening is a main feature” of the project. “What are police doing in mosques?” he said. “I’m surprised that mosques have been so friendly and co-opted by the police, they are beginning to resemble police stations.”

“Mosques are so keen to cooperate with police and prove that they are not terrorists, or terrorist sympathizers that they are willing to do anything, I don’t think it will do them any good,” he added.

Though Randle insisted that the program was transparent, he admitted that the decision to donate was initially made with a view to listening to the subjects being discussed but they did not pursue that option, believing it would raise suspicion within the community.

Mahmood said that while there is concern among residents, some of the blame for the controversy lies with the mosque. “This latest move has triggered criticism among some Muslims who feel West Midlands Police are once again invading their privacy but the truth is all this could have been avoided had the Mosque requested the money from elsewhere.”

Read the original article published in Anadolu Agency on 8 April 2014

The Muslim Plot That Wasn’t

A secret document purporting to expose an undercover Muslim conspiracy to take over schools in Birmingham hit national news recently, prompting journalists to fall over themselves heralding a sinister ‘Islamic plot’, while eliciting both public statements from the Prime Minister and snap Ofsted inspections for the places of learning allegedly targeted by the conspirators.

From the outset I would like to be clear about my interest in the subject. I grew up in Birmingham, in the areas where some of these schools are based. I know Park View, one of the places mentioned, very well. I used to play football there once a week in the evenings as a teenager, and trained on the astro turf on Friday nights with Alum Rock FC. I still have family and friends playing for the local side. I also remember the reputation of Park View. It was the last place you wanted to go to school, it was the last place most parents in the area wanted to send their children and those of my friends were educated there would admit it with embarrassment.

The school since then has completely turned around. It is regarded as outstanding. There is a waiting list to get into the school. But now this so-called plot has overshadowed the school’s achievements and the hard work of those that have helped it progress. Its success is particularly worthy of celebration due to the fact that it has now become a place where people from poorer backgrounds can develop a brighter future; 72% of the school children are on free school meals. Journalists usually fail to mention this and the fact that the school is in one of the most economically deprived areas of Birmingham.

Rather, the emphasis is fixed around religion and culture. The narrative attached to this story fits neatly into the anti-Muslim rhetoric that we have seen increasing over the years. For those that buy into Islamophobic paradigms this is a gift: what more could any self-respected bigot want as vindication for their beliefs than the exposure of a clandestine plot by Muslim hardliners to oust non-Muslim heads and staff and replace them with Muslim fundamentalists? A plot to segregate girls from boys. Girls forced to wear headscarves – it has all the makings of a racist melodrama and an EDL wet dream.

There’s only one problem: none of it is true.

The letter that stirred up the recent hysteria about the school is an unattributed, undated text, unsigned by anyone- a fact that seems to have been completely overlooked by those journalists braying for the blood of Muslims of late.

How many Muslims do you need for a plot? Two? Three? Or more? What constitutes a plot? There is a very sinister Islamophobic narrative taking place here, one that, for all intents and purposes, accuses an entire minority community of surreptitiously plotting away to infiltrate the country’s institutions and changing its very values, or so we are led to believe. Would journalists ever call something a ‘Jewish plot’ or ‘Christian plot’? Should we now re-visit the Gunpowder plot and rename it the ‘Roman-Catholic plot’? Why is the religion of the governors and students been mentioned as if it were any worthier of emphasis than Guy Fawkes’ faith? Why does this become the central issue?

I’ve spoken to teachers at the school, as well as parents and governors. There is no forced segregation. Children sit where they want and- shock! Horror!- teenage boys want to sit with their male friends and girls sit with their female friends. The issue appears to be gaining so much focus simply because the children are Muslim. Arabic is taught in school, for a simple reason: it’s actually the preferred option by students.

Regarding the claims that a teacher praised the extremist preacher Anwar Awlaki in a school assembly- I have yet to find any evidence of this. We do not know when this has supposedly taken place and which staff member said it. Yet it has been broadly taken as gospel truth and ‘evidence’ of the claims of pro-terrorist Muslim scheming.

Let us look at a few facts that contradict the dominant narrative at hand about Park View: the executive principle is not a Muslim, the assistant principle is not Muslim but the acting principle is a Muslim. Surely if there was a ‘plot’ taking place all the heads of the school would be Muslim, instead the executive principle is a white non-Muslim woman. She must be a crypto-Muslim agent no doubt.

In the last 17 years all three permanent appointments at the school for head teacher have been non-Muslims. If this plot started 20 years ago as it is claimed, then where are the Muslim heads?

Tahir Alam, chair of governors at Park View, is named in the letter and ‘plot’. Mr Alam for years has tried to get Muslim parents involved in the education of their children. He has made no secret about this, he has held public events and told parents the importance of participation. The Muslim community often gets criticised for not engaging but when they do they are accused of infiltration, plots and extremism.

According to one BBC report a former teacher, Mike White, said the plot started 20 years ago. White was removed for gross misconduct and he took the school to a tribunal but lost. What the BBC fails to mention is that when Mr White was head of maths only one in 120 students got a C grade. Now, 99 out of 120 students get a C+ grade.

BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme did a report on the school. A journalist accosted students and asked them if they were forced to wear the hijab- you know, because this school is run by the Taliban, where every woman must cover themselves in order to appease their fastidious schoolmasters. This biased and loaded piece of so-called journalism also claimed that there were no pictures of girls and boys together in the school. The reporter was either blind or deliberately neglected to mention the fact that the school demonstrably displays pictures of boys and girls together and that several people have refuted her claim- but why let facts get in the way when you are on a mission to prove that there is a plot, however low your journalistic standards have to sink in order to do this?

We all know from former Daily Star reporter, Richard Peppiatt, how the drive for anti-Muslim stories in the press can lead to a skewing of facts or just simply making things up.

I do not have much hope in the Ofsted report either. I have already spoken to parents and was shocked by the questions that Ofsted and Department of Education investigators have been asking students and teachers. “Are you forced to wear that scarf,” they asked one girl who was wearing a long skirt, “Isn’t it very difficult for you to move around?”. One teacher was asked, “Are you homophobic?”, because all Muslims must be homophobic, right?

There is extremism is schools, I agree and accept this. Extremism exists in schools were parents pay tens of thousands a year to have their boys segregated from girls. Where an ideology of superiority is taught, where young rich boys are taught that it is their God given right to rule over the commoners. Where a skewed version of history is taught, colonialism was a good thing and the empire brought good to the world and civilized the savages. In these schools boys are forced to learn Latin, not Arabic. But we won’t see or hear politicians talking of that kind of extremism or segregation, we won’t see journalists peering through windows there, because it is not Muslims involved. Extremism of the rich is applauded, not questioned.

I would like to thank the teachers, governors and staff at Park View school. I would like to thank them for giving hope to so many children from a deprived area, an area I grew up in. I wish I had had this hope as a youngster. I would like to thank them for making the children believe that they can achieve and making them feel comfortable as themselves. I would like to thank them for going to such a school and not leaving it to fail, when so many others are willing to spend a short stint at an inner-city school and then move on once they have the ‘diversity’ and ‘difficult’ school on their CV’s. I would like to thank them for caring about children that once no one cared about- because no one thought we were capable of achieving anything.

Theirs is a story that should have made the news for this reason, long before they were smeared by a press addicted to sensationalist, dog-whistle journalism- which a growing market of uncritical bigots will happily pay to read.