[118], On reaction to Gove's call for British values in schools, the Muslim Council of Britain expressed fear that it would effectively bar conservative Muslims from becoming school trustees or governors. This was after the government had cited the Trojan Horse affair as justification for its new plans to counter extremism.[130]. He has performed over 60 operatic roles in the standard The first opportunity to put their case came when professional misconduct cases were brought against them by the National College of Teaching and Learning (an independent agency of the Department for Education, now replaced by the Teaching Regulation Agency) in October 2015 and May 2017 when the case against the senior teachers collapsed because of "serious improprieties" by the legal team acting for the NCTL. First Published 2019. [58] An extended Islamic assembly for its Year 10 and 11 pupils was arranged with Sheikh Shady al-Suleiman, an extremist preacher who has called on God to "destroy the enemies of Islam", "give victory to all the Mujahideen all over the world" and to "prepare us for the jihad". [44] He accused Tahir Alam, chairman of the Park View Educational Trust, of "planning this for 15 years" and honing in Birmingham tactics that he had drafted in his 72-page document, published by the Muslim Council of Britain in 2007, on how to subvert schools to fundamentalist Islam. He noted that in Tower Hamlets, a borough in which 32 per cent of the population is Bangladeshi, the Tower Hamlets First Party, of which the Mayor was a member, had 18 councillors who were all Bangladeshi, and 17 of them were men. Other details can be found in Man-in-the-browser attack. Akmal criticised female politicians, saying: "She has to sacrifice her family, she has to sacrifice her children, she has to sacrifice her husband, all in the name of equality." is for sale online, in a number of independent bookshops, including one in Seattle, and in a major bookshop chain in London. ", Peter Clarke, former counterterrorism chief, conducted the investigation which gathered and examined 2,000 documents and generated 2,000 pages of interview transcripts from 50 witnesses, including former headteachers, teachers, council staff and school governors. Skilled Account Development Executive in areas of Insurances and Financial They built a wooden horse, which they left outside the city. However, what was at issue also included other documents outside the Clarke Report that had potentially been relevant to the case. Speaking after withdrawing her resignation, Ms.Kondal said: "The pressures outlined in the Trojan Horse letter are very real and it mustn't be allowed to happen again. Mark Panton and Geoff Walters (2019) Tottenhams Trojan Horse? Initially, the failure to disclose the transcripts was explained as a "departmental misunderstanding", albeit one, according to the Panel, where, "even on that basis such failure was simply unacceptable". banned from any involvement with schools,[10] while the bans against 14 other teachers were eventually overturned, dropped and/or dismissed in courts between 2016 and 2017. [51], Ofsted investigated in 21 schools in Birmingham in March 2014. The report stated the messages evidenced that the group had "either promoted, or failed to challenge, views that are grossly intolerant of beliefs and practices other than their own". [137], The academic scholar John Holmwood, who served as an expert witness in the professional misconduct case brought against the senior teachers at Park View Educational Trust, wrote a book with scholar Therese O'Toole about the Trojan Horse affair, Countering Extremism in British Schools? She also said, "It is not just an academy problem, this was happening before we became an academy. Sir Michael Wilshaw, Chief Inspector at Ofsted, had commented at a national conference that "All schools should be like this and there's no reason why they shouldn't be. [58], The Education Funding Agency (EFA) found that the school lacked a balanced and broad curriculum and saw several subjects marginalised. [29] The letter was alleged to have been written from Birmingham and sent to a contact in Bradford to expand the operation into that city. [135][136] No mention was made of the fact that allegations of extremism had not been any part of the charges against teachers. "[92], The report concluded that based on the examination of emails and correspondence: "There is incontrovertible evidence that both senior officials and elected members of Birmingham council were aware of activities that bear a striking resemblance to those described in the Trojan horse letter many months before it surfaced. Books available to the children included one which advocated parents hitting children if they did not pray by the age of 10 and another which praised individuals who "loved death more than life in their pursuit of righteous and true religion". External speakers were improperly vetted. This page was last edited on 24 December 2022, at 23:24. A mysterious letter detailing a supposed Islamist plot to take over schools shocked Britain in 2014. Media coverage of Operation Trojan Horse was varied. It tries to deceive the user to load and execute the files on the device. Teachers reported unfair treatment because of their gender or religious beliefs. While this kit can be [95], Prime Minister David Cameron, on a visit to Birmingham, praised his government's swift action in investigating the conspiracy. mark walters trojan horse. [41] Concerns have also been raised by the National Association of Head Teachers about schools in parts of East London and other "large cities around the country". Creationism was taught as fact in school assemblies and science lessons at both Park View and Golden Hillock. Pages 21. eBook ISBN 9780429057625. Government officials and policy advisers, as well as journalists previously involved in the case, rushed to announce that the cases had collapsed on a 'technicality'. [82], Pupils had limited knowledge of any religion apart from Islam. Senior leaders did not ensure "balanced views of the world" were taught and that "contact with different cultures, faiths and traditions is too limited to promote tolerance and respect for the views, lifestyles and customs of other people". The Trojan Horse scandal, also known as "Operation Trojan Horse" or the Trojan Horse affair, involves claims of an alleged conspiracy[1][2] that there was an organised attempt to introduce an "Islamist" or "Salafist" ethos into several schools in Birmingham, England. [24] In the wake of the findings, Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, announced that all schools in the country will have to promote British values of tolerance and fairness and said that teachers will be banned from the profession if they allow extremists into schools. [2], The leaked letter on the alleged plot was reported by media including the BBC on 7 March 2014. None of those involved in the Trojan horse affair were criminals in the conventional sense of the word. From Serial Productions and The New York Times, The Trojan Horse This showed Birmingham to be performing badly on most indicators, but outperforming other cities and the national average for its school results and the proportion of schools graded outstanding. Across eight episodes, journalists Brian Reed and Hamza Syed sought to discover the author of the anonymous letter that triggered the scandal. It also provides useful information and guidance and features of good practice in meeting those needs. The contracts for the taxpayer-funded school trips never underwent a formal tender process, and instead a travel firm was used with close links to a current teacher and former director of the school. Around a month later, Birmingham City Council revealed that following the letter release it had received hundreds of allegations of plots similar to those described in the letter, some claims dating back over 20 years. In 2012, head teacher Chris Robinson resigned, having felt that her reputation, integrity and leadership were being questioned by governors. They investigated schools in East London, Bradford and Luton over concerns regarding a limited curriculum and pupils' detachment from the wider community. An alleged Trojan Horse plotter claims the Nazis could have killed as few as 100,000 Jews. Youre otherwise a regular Joe, you just go and pray on occasions. [30] In it, responsibility was claimed for installing a new headteacher at four schools in Birmingham, and it highlighted 12 others in the city which would be easy targets due to large Muslim attendance and poor inspection reports. [29] The letter described pressure being put on the head teacher at Regents Park school, a school judged to be outstanding and "planting the seed of her cheating". Additionally, students were expected to fast during the month of Ramadan. The teacher also used school facilities to copy Osama bin Laden DVDs. It is designed to steal, damage, or do some harmful actions on the computer. [110][111], The National Union of Teachers (NUT) demanded a full review of academies after the letter was revealed, expressing that political and religious groups had exploited the status at thousands of schools to indoctrinate children. "[128] Bhupinder Kondal left the school again shortly after. Posters were found in the classrooms encouraging children to begin lessons with a Muslim prayer, one saying: "If you do not pray, you are worse than a kafir", and staff reported that loudspeakers were set up in the school to broadcast a call to prayer. [7] Mahmood told Channel 4 that he did not believe that the investigation was Islamophobic, stating "Over 200 people complaining to the local authority about what's gone on and you can't really claim that it's a witch-hunt". [citation needed], An investigation ordered by the government found a "sustained, co-ordinated agenda to impose segregationist attitudes and practices of a hardline, politicised strain of Sunni Islam" in several Birmingham schools. The latter found that there is "no evidence to suggest that there is a problem with governance generally" nor any "evidence of terrorism, radicalisation or violent extremism in the schools of concern in Birmingham", but said that there was "evidence that there are a number of people, associated with each other and in positions of influence in schools and governing bodies, who espouse, sympathise with or fail to challenge extremist views", and that there had been "co-ordinated, deliberate and sustained" attempts "by a number of associated individuals, to introduce an intolerant and aggressive Islamic ethos" into "a few schools in Birmingham". [84] The school was rated "inadequate". [75] The school's curriculum was deemed inadequate because it did not promote tolerance and harmony between different cultural traditions. ", The government's Department for Education initially responded to the scandal by banning Alam and 14 other teachers from the teaching profession for life in 2015. The BBC reported on gender segregation at a state secondary school, Carlton Bolling College, during trips and after-school workshops, as well as boys-only school trips. Another teacher told the children that were "lucky to be Muslims and not ignorant like Christians and Jews". Trojan Horsewalkers' Team | Conditioning horses since 1961 Products Lead Walkers Free Flow Exerciser Rebuilt Kit FAQ Price Quote About Us Contact Us 855-265-4222 Products Lead [78] The EFA team concluded: "We saw evidence that Oldknow academy is acting as a faith school and is not making active efforts to make the academy attractive to all faith denominations including pupils of no faith. The teachers were barred from responding to the allegations due to confidentiality orders as part of their employment contracts that were binding also after the suspension. The New York Times podcast "The Trojan Horse Affair" uncovered this secret document that disproves one of the central allegations of the Trojan Horse letter, that there was a conspiracy against the headteacher of Adderley primary school. He claimed that girls should be taught cooking and sewing while boys should be taught trades. Under the academy schools programme, it could only be done with the active involvement of officials in the local authority (including over the transfer of assets to the new trust) and at the Department for Education and it would require an academically successful school to be the sponsor of 'failing' schools. A member of staff at Park View also alleged that the school had handed out worksheets stating that wives can not refuse to have sex with their husbands, a claim that the school denied. There are several things that a trojan can do, and one of its important features is, it remains in the users system secretly and does not let them find it. Ms.Bano had previously been highly critical of the terms of the inspections of the school, claiming that "[My children] never knew words like radicalisation, but have now been exposed to them. The pupils were told at an assembly not to send Christmas cards and that Mary was not the mother of Jesus. A detailed discussion of the evidence presented in the NCTL case is provided in chapter 9 of John Holmwood and Therese O'Toole's book on the Trojan Horse affair. [40], Based on interview and research in The New York Times podcast Serial, the producers argue that most levels of government did not prioritise the identification of the letter's author. The group promoted links to extremist speakers that betrayed "an Islamist approach that denied the validity of alternative belief", and some group members who believed that the murder of Lee Rigby was staged, encouraged other members to promulgate this view. He denied all allegations against him.[27]. Imprint Routledge. Share. " 'Trojan Horse' schools: the leaked inspectors' report". Telegraph Blogs. Archived from the original on 23 April 2014. ^ Gilligan, Andrew (9 March 2014). "Extremists and the 'Trojan Horse' approach in state schools". The Telegraph. ^ "Trojan Horse leaked report says pupils 'not protected from extremism' ". [19] Like Peter Clarke, Kershaw seemed unaware that all schools had a duty to promote community cohesion. [5], Ofsted expressed concerns about an exclusively Muslim culture in non-faith schools and children not being taught to "develop tolerant attitudes towards other faiths". The Trojan Horse Affair presents a one-sided account that minimises child protection concerns, misogyny and homophobia in order to exonerate the podcasts hero, a The school had spent 50,000 on three subsidised trips to Saudi Arabia so that pupils could visit the cities of Mecca and Medina in what the EFA described as "an extravagant use of public funds". [119], Tahir Alam, chair of governors at Park View and labelled by some newspapers as the "ringleader" of Operation Trojan Horse, resigned alongside all of his board of trustees on 15 July. The Trojan Horse scandal, also known as " Operation Trojan Horse " or the Trojan Horse affair, refers to a scandal involving claims of an alleged conspiracy that there was an organised attempt by some individuals to introduce an Islamist or Salafist ethos into several schools in Birmingham, England. The Greeks were laying siege to the city of Troy, and the war had dragged on for ten years. [citation needed] A senior teacher told inspectors that the solution to all problems would be a global Caliphate under Sharia law. Adderley primary school is at the centre of the podcast's investigations. Look at how [the] Muslim population is increasing in the UK. No charges of extremism were put forward, only charges associated with 'undue religious influence'. He said some of the witnesses had been very nervous and anxious. In May, Mark Rogers, Birmingham City Council's Chief Executive, had a meeting with head teachers of affected schools. [126], Akmal was recorded saying that "white women have the least amount of morals" and since women were "emotionally weaker" than men, their role was to look after children and the home. [56][bettersourceneeded], Park View academy had been identified as outstanding in a 2012 Ofsted report, the first school to be inspected under a tougher new inspection regime introduced by then Secretary of State. [12][1], In December 2022 a report from right-leaning Policy Exchange challenged the findings of the New York Times podcast and suggested that various reports into the matter had uncovered real causes for concern. [2], The report commissioned by Birmingham City Council and compiled by former head teacher, Ian Kershaw, concluded that school governors and teachers had tried to promote and enforce radical Islamic values and found evidence of extremism in 13 schools. Children were urged to join in anti-Christian chants. [23] The government terminated its funding arrangement with three of the schools. The drawn out nature of the cases meant that there were no journalists present to report the detailed rebuttal of claims indicated above, for example of banning Christmas celebrations, or teacher handouts promoting the obligations on wives to consent to sex with their husbands. But who wrote it? 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