A Tory clampdown on schools in Birmingham has unleashed a torrent of racist filth.

The government ordered investigations after an anonymous letter alleged a Muslim “plot” to take over schools. Right wing newspapers devoted pages to personal attacks on Muslim teachers and governors.

Reports released this week found no evidence of a plot. But the witch hunt isn’t over.

Doug Morgan, president of the NUT teachers’ union in Birmingham, spoke to Socialist Worker in a personal capacity. “None of this is about how staff have been treated or the curriculum,” he said. “It isn’t about defending girls or gay people in schools. It’s about racism.”

Parent Gadija da Costa told Socialist Worker, “The word extremist is becoming synonymous with Muslim. This is broader than just schools. It’s becoming a human rights issue.”

Socialist Worker, 10 June 2014

An Islamic faith school branded ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted has this afternoon (June 9) hit back at the education watchdog.

Following a visit last month, inspectors said senior leaders at Olive Tree Primary school ‘have not ensured that the school’s educational resources present balanced views of the world’. The school has criticised their report as being ‘half-baked’ and ‘highly politicised’.

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“Over the past three months the pupils and parents of Alum Rock, the tight-knit, overwhelmingly Muslim community we serve, have become unwitting players in a vast game of academies, anti-extremism policy, Whitehall leaks and faith schools.

“Not a thought for our year-11s sitting crucial exams, or their parents. But then, these people are Muslims, and Islamophobia the last acceptable prejudice.”

Lee Donaghy, assistant principal of Park View School, responds to the Gove-inspired witch-hunt.

Guardian, 9 June 2014

See also “The Guardian view on the Birmingham schools row: more dogma than dynamite”, Guardian, 9 June 2014

And Mark Easton, “‘Trojan horse’ scandal – extreme or diverse?”, BBC News, 9 June 2014

Also, although it was written before the Ofsted reports were published, see Mohammed Amin, “My take on ‘Trojan Horse'”, ConservativeHome, 9 June 2014

A Muslim school found to have books suggesting stoning and lashing as appropriate punishments says it is the victim of “hostility”.

Ofsted said some of the library books at Olive Tree Primary School in Luton contained fundamentalist views which had “no place in British society”. The education watchdog deemed Olive Tree Primary School in Bury Park Road “inadequate” following a visit in May.

Farasat Latif, chairman of governors, said he rejected Ofsted’s findings.

Last month’s inspection was abandoned when parents complained their children had been asked about homosexuality. But Ofsted said it had already gained “sufficient evidence” to produce a report.

Inspectors said pupils’ “contact with different cultures, faiths and traditions is too limited to promote tolerance and respect for the views, lifestyles and customs of other people”. Senior leaders do not ensure “balanced views of the world” and some books in the school promote stoning and lashing as appropriate punishments, the report added. “There are too few books about the world’s major religions other than Islam,” it said.

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Richard Adams poses the question that other journalists would be advised to ask.

Guardian, 8 June 2014

See also “‘Trojan Horse’: Calls for interfaith task force”, BBC News, 8 June 2014

Staff and pupils at Birmingham school have been left baffled and angry over its media portrayal, Daniel Boffey reports.

Observer, 8 June 2014

See also “Bob Jones criticises Michael Gove’s interference in Trojan Horse investigation”, West Midlands Police Crime Commissioner press release, 6 June 2014

In a week when twenty leading educationalists and Muslim leaders have questioned Ofsted’s impartiality in the Birmingham ‘Trojan Horse’ affair, education consultant Robin Richardson reflects on the factors behind its controversial recent inspections.

Institute of Race Relations, 5 June 2014