Birmingham probes Muslim takeover of schools 'plot'

[Capetan Mihali]

I fear they'll get their hands on the schools' setting and theme next.

[Norgy]

I fear they'll get their hands on the schools' setting and theme next.

Just wait until they start doing characters. 

[Eddie Teach]

If the article had been about Birmingham, Alabama, they'd be complaining about Puerto Ricans rather than Muslims.

[garbon]

Americans, unable to think about anything that doesn't involve them.

[Kleves]

They called their secret plot 'Operation Trojan Horse?" 

[viper37]

They called their secret plot 'Operation Trojan Horse?" 

maybe they don't really teach ancient Greek history in muslim schools? that would explain the 'clever' name.

[Norgy]

They called their secret plot 'Operation Trojan Horse?" 

Heh. I missed that. 

[KRonn]

Americans, unable to think about anything that doesn't involve them.

[Sheilbh]

So this has exploded the letter's a hoax but there's an Ofsted investigation into the schools, a big difference in policy within the cabinet and Tory leadership posturing:

David Cameron furious over extremism row between top ministers
PM demands full briefing on exchanges between Theresa May and Michael Gove over strategy in tackling extremism
Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent
The Guardian, Wednesday 4 June 2014 21.27 BST
Jump to comments (...)

A furious David Cameron has ordered all the facts to be laid before him after a row between Theresa May and Michael Gove over the government's strategy in tackling Islamist extremism burst into the open, overshadowing the final Queen's speech before the general election.

The prime minister raised his concerns with Gove in a brief meeting in Downing Street on Wednesday morning in advance of the Queen's speech after No 10 awoke to headlines about a major falling-out between two of the cabinet's heaviest hitters. Cameron, who left London shortly after the Queen's speech for the G7 summit in Brussels, has asked for a full briefing on all the contacts between May and Gove to be placed on his desk by the time he returns home later this week, amid a feeling at senior levels that there was fault on both sides.

The row exploded when the Times reported that the home secretary and the education secretary were "at war" over the government's strategy in tackling extremism. The Times quoted an education department source as saying that Charles Farr, the Home Office official in charge of security and counter-terrorism, is wrong to target only violent extremists. Gove believes that all extremists, whether or not they support violence, should be tackled.

Using vivid language, the source told the Times: "Farr always believed if extremists become violent we should deal with it. It has been characterised by others in government as just beating back the crocodiles that came close to the boat rather than draining the swamp."

Gove, who wrote a polemical book, Celsius 7/7, in 2006 on the dangers posed by extremism, told Cameron that he was the source quoted in the Times. He said he had returned to the newspaper where he once worked for a 70-minute lunch on Monday and had made the remarks in response to questions about the "Trojan horse" alleged infiltration of schools in Birmingham by extremists.

The admission by Gove that he was the source for the Times story was seen as important in Whitehall, where it had initially been assumed that the education secretary had deliberately decided to launch a strike against May on the eve of the Queen's speech. Gove told Cameron that he had simply answered questions from the Times editorial board in an open manner and in a way that was entirely consistent with the prime minister's speech on extremism at the Munich security conference in 2011.

The prime minister made clear to Gove that he was deeply disappointed that the row had overshadowed the Queen's speech. But eyebrows in Whitehall were also raised at the response from the home secretary's office.

May released a letter to Gove to the Times on Wednesday afternoon. A link to the letter was posted at 12.24am in the morning on the official Home Office Twitter feed after the first edition of the Times was published. It is thought that Fiona Cunningham, the home secretary's media special adviser, who is also in a relationship with Farr, may face questions about the tweet.

One senior Whitehall source said: "We have to get to the bottom of what happened. The release of the letter in the early hours was unusual. We will establish the facts and respond accordingly."

May's office only sent the letter to Gove's office at 4.30pm on Tuesday afternoon – eight hours before the tweet. There was some surprise because the letter was not technically about the disagreement between Gove and May about tackling extremism, which dated back to a meeting of the Whitehall Prevent committee last November.

Gove had written to the prime minister, in a letter copied to May and all members of the committee, after they failed to reach agreement at the November meeting. A compromise was then agreed.

The letter from May sent on Tuesday dealt with the more narrow issue of a voluntary code of practice for madrassas and supplementary schools. The letter addressed the policy but then had a final paragraph, likened to a letter from a shadow secretary of state, which posed a series of hostile questions about the failure of the education department to tackle extremism in Birmingham schools.

Tory MPs lined up on either side of the May/Gove battle, which is being fuelled by the eventual succession to the prime minister. Crispin Blunt, the former prisons minister, accused Gove of using Britain's national security council to promote "neocon" ideas that could encourage moderates to move towards Islamist extremism.

One senior Tory said the home secretary was irritated that Gove writes to the prime minister when he struggles to win the argument in cabinet committees. The MP said: "It would be wrong to say that Theresa is at the end of her tether. She always keeps going. It is cold fury rather than losing her temper."

Supporters of a potential leadership bid by George Osborne, the chancellor, whose numbers include Gove, believe the home secretary is stamping her mark on the party. "This is Theresa laying out her standard," one minister said. "People admire Theresa but there aren't really any May-ites prepared to go into the trenches with her. In contrast George has legions of supporters whose numbers are increasing as the economy improves. Michael is so close to George they are joined at the hip."

Relations between Gove and May have been poisonous since the education secretary challenged her during a cabinet meeting last year to stop undermining the prime minister when he spoke out against prominent Tories promoting their leadership credentials. Since that intervention in March last year, when she set out a wide-ranging credo in a speech to a ConservativeHome conference, May has immeasurably strengthened her position. She is widely seen as one of the steadiest cabinet ministers who, with little fanfare, has made deep changes most notably in policing.

"Theresa is a brilliant example of how you can do more with less," one admiring minister said, citing her recent speech in which she warned the Police Federation that she will change the law unless it introduces far-reaching reforms. May has been rewarded for her performance after she came top in a ConservativeHome poll of likely contenders for the leadership.

The home secretary secured the support of 35% of party members, an increase of 15 points in a month. Boris Johnson was on 23% with Gove trailing on 7.9%.

But Gove does not see himself as a future Tory leader. He is instead motivated by two key factors. These are: ensuring that the government leaves a lasting legacy in key areas, such as schools reform and tackling extremism; and shoring up the position of the prime minister and the chancellor, George Osborne, his favourite for the succession.

The Gove tactics have also led to tensions with Johnson, who was upset when the education secretary told Rupert Murdoch and his key UK staff that the London mayor would be unsuitable as a prime minister.

The last paragraph of Theresa May's letter - I don't like Tories but I do think she's very impressive and probably the best leadership candidate - there's also a hint in the letter that Gove wants a French style ban on the hijab in schools:

The allegations relating to schools in Birmingham raise serious questions about the quality of school governance and oversight arrangements in the maintained sector, not just the supplementary schools that would be signatories to this code of practice. How did it come to pass, for example, that one of the governors at Park View was the chairman of the education committee of the Muslim Council of Britain? Is it true that Birmingham city council was warned about these allegations in 2008? Is it true that the Department for Education was warned in 2010? If so, why did nobody act? I am aware that several investigations are still ongoing and those investigations are yet to conclude. But it is clear to me that we will need to take clear action to improve the quality of staffing and governance if we are to prevent extremism in schools.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jun/04/theresa-may-letter-michael-gove-in-full

[Sheilbh]

A Sikh Principal, Too English for a Largely Muslim School
By KIMIKO DE FREYTAS-TAMURADEC. 7, 2014


Balwant Bains says he faced relentless criticism from a Muslim-dominated school board. Credit Andrew Testa for The New York Times

BIRMINGHAM, England — As a Sikh and second-generation Briton running a public school made up mostly of Muslim students, Balwant Bains was at the center of the issues facing multicultural Britain, including the perennial question of balancing religious precepts and cultural identity against assimilation.

But in January, Mr. Bains stepped down as the principal of the Saltley School and Specialist Science College, saying he could no longer do the job in the face of relentless criticism from the Muslim-dominated school board. It had pressed him, unsuccessfully, to replace some courses with Islamic and Arabic studies, segregate girls and boys and drop a citizenship class on tolerance and democracy in Britain.

"I suppose I was a threat, giving these children more British values, for them to be integrated into society," Mr. Bains said in his first interview since the controversy over his departure.

His experience has helped bring to life the often deeply emotional and highly contentious conflicts unearthed by a British government investigation this year into whether organized groups of conservative Muslims were having undue influence on public schools.

The topic has become especially sensitive at a time when Britain is concerned about the radicalization of young Muslims in the country and their involvement with jihadis in Syria and Iraq. The investigation was prompted by an anonymous letter, sent last year to local officials in Birmingham, alleging an organized Islamic takeover of British schools in Muslim neighborhoods.

Conducted by the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills, or Ofsted, the inquiry found the allegations to be overstated. But the agency found much that was troubling about Muslim efforts to promote changes in secular public schools, and it has recently widened its investigation to 46 schools across the country.

The investigation found that five schools in Birmingham, including Mr. Bains's, shared a pattern of behavior similar to what was described in the anonymous letter. The letter also cited Mr. Bains's impending resignation, a month before it was made official and which only a few knew about, suggesting that the author was someone with detailed knowledge of the schools.

"The Sikh head running a Muslim school," the letter said, "will soon be sacked and we will move in."

The investigation found that some teachers and school board governors at the other schools were encouraging homophobia, anti-Semitism and support for Al Qaeda, sometimes inviting speakers who endorsed the establishment of a state run under Sharia law.

One school stopped music and drama lessons as well as Christmas and Diwali celebrations, and subsidized trips to Saudi Arabia for Muslim students.

In another school, the report found, girls and female teachers were discriminated against, and compulsory sex education, including discussions about forced marriage, was banned. Girls and boys seen talking for too long or considered flirtatious were reprimanded, while boys were given worksheets that said a wife had to obey her husband.

The report, released in July, highlighted Mr. Bains's case and concluded that there had been a "coordinated, deliberate and sustained action, carried out by a number of associated individuals, to introduce an intolerant and aggressive Islamic ethos into a few schools in Birmingham."

Muhammad Khan, the chairman of the board of governors at the time, who is no longer at the school, did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Three governors who were also present at meetings with Mr. Bains also refused to comment on his allegations.

Muslim leaders in Britain have condemned the report's findings, saying it was wrong to conflate conservative Muslim practices with an alleged agenda to Islamicize school systems.

Mr. Bains, 47, was born to Indian immigrants in a suburb of Coventry notorious for prostitution and violent crime. He grew up listening to stories of how his father, a teacher in Punjab State, walked 30 miles each day to and from school. He would study by candlelight because his village had no electricity. After arriving in Britain and securing work as a laborer, he put his son and daughters through college.

"It made me value education more, and because it is free in this country," Mr. Bains said. "I lifted myself out of poverty because of education. If I could do it, if I could break the cycle, other children could, too."

His background, he said, is that "I'm an inclusionist."

He added that he saw his role as being to "educate children to live and function in a multicultural Britain, to be appreciative of the views of other people, but also to express themselves."

In 2012, he became head teacher of Saltley, a school where grades were falling behind the national average. In spite of his ordeal throughout 2013, the school achieved its best General Certificate of Secondary Education grades ever — roughly equivalent to the high school diploma in America. Britain's school inspectorate judged the school as one of the most improved state schools that year.

"But I never got a single congratulation" from the school's governing board, a mix of elected parents and other people from the community and members appointed to represent the staff and the local government, Mr. Bains said. "It was emotional harassment."

The chairman of the governing board took to challenging his day-to-day decision making, Mr. Bains said. In one instance he was required to justify every decision he made during a three-month period, Mr. Bains said, including why he had students walk on the right side of the corridor instead of the left, what he said at assemblies and why he made changes to the school website. He had to print and distribute the resulting 300-page document to each of the 15 members of the governing board.

When a student threatened six classmates with a knife, he expelled the boy, a Muslim, in a decision supported by parents and the local authority. But governors reinstated the boy. Because Mr. Bains did not suspend another student, a white boy who had surrendered the weapon, talk spread among staff that he was racist and Islamophobic. He discovered a Facebook post and text messages calling on parents and students to protest against him, he said, and later learned that the message had even been circulated among local mosques.

"Some of the children would come in and tell me, 'Mr. Bains, they're going to egg your car today, so you better move your car,' " he said. "I felt very isolated, I was despondent. I was a head teacher going into work without any power."

The treatment, he said, lasted 11 months, beginning just two months after he was appointed head teacher, until he resigned.

By then, all non-Muslim governors except one at his school had left. He was immediately replaced by a friend of the chairman of the board of governors. A number of staff members at other schools cited in the government investigation also resigned because they disagreed with the attitudes taken by some administrators. They also claimed that teachers had been appointed based on their religious zeal, not their teaching qualifications.

The government report partly vindicated him, Mr. Bains said. But if nothing changes, he said, "then it means anyone can just go in and destroy a school and get away with it."

[garbon]

I found this fun.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson/fox-news-said-non-muslims-dont-visit-birmingham-and-created

[mongers]

I found this fun.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson/fox-news-said-non-muslims-dont-visit-birmingham-and-created

Exec.Sum please, as I don't like using buzzfeed because it crashes my browser.

[11B4V]

Shit, I thought it was Birmingham, Alabama.  Now that would've been fun to watch.

You would have to worry about black v. white anymore.

[mongers]

OK this is it? -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-30773297

That's beyond stupid, it's contemptible, he must have know what he said was a pack of lies, but choose to say it because thought he could manipulate fox news into taking the debate/putting out that message.

[Valmy]

Yeah it seems everybody in Birmingham prays five times a day, which is more than most British people pray in a year.