You only have to read the headline to know who wrote the article. Yes, it’s that pompous, self-publicising prat Taj Hargey.
Category Archives: State Oppression
The terrorist that wasn’t
After eight years in American and British prisons, Talha Ahsan is free.
James Ridgeway and Jean Casella report.
Update: See also Arun Kundnani and Jeanne Theoharis, “How outsourcing terror cases to the US can inadvertently result in a fair trial”, Guardian, 23 July 2014
‘Trojan Horse’ school trustees resign
The chairman of the education trust at the centre of the alleged “Trojan Horse” Muslim takeover plot in Birmingham schools has resigned along with his entire board of trustees.
Tahir Alam, of the Park View Educational Trust, made the announcement today outside the gates of Park View Academy in Alum Rock, Birmingham.
The trust has been the focus of allegations made in the anonymous Trojan Horse letter – now widely held to be a hoax – alleging the existence of a clique of hardline Muslims attempting to seize control of Birmingham schools. Those allegations triggered several inquiries and last month the trust’s three schools were placed in special measures by Ofsted. Mr Alam has always denied any wrongdoing and branded the investigations “a witch hunt”.
Mr Alam launched a scathing attack on outgoing Education Secretary Michael Gove, Ofsted and others, as he announced he would be standing down.
After four months of inspections and scrutiny, the capacity of the trust’s three schools – Park View, Golden Hillock and Nansen – to continue to offer an outstanding education “is at risk of being seriously compromised”, he said.
“We believe strongly that we have justice on our side, and we know we have the support of many from within and outside Birmingham, including our students, parents and members of staff,” Mr Alam said.
“However, we are not prepared to subject our school communities to the further period of intense and bitter pressure that our continuing as members of Park View Educational Trust will see them face. And it is for this reason, and with a deep sense of injustice and sadness, that today we are announcing our intention to resign our positions at Park View Educational Trust and allow new people to assume responsibility with the aim of continuing the success of our schools.”
Mr Alam said the reputation of Park View School had been brought to the point of destruction, and the effect on the communities of the allegations and investigations had been “appalling”.
Photographer Nicolo Degiorgis lifts the veil on Italy’s Islamophobia
Nicolo Degiorgis contrasts the peace of prayer with the tension of politics, with many of Italy’s Muslims now forced to pray in warehouses, garages, gyms, and shops. Sean O’Hagan reports.
Hidden Islam is published by Rorhof (€47)
Revealing report on anti-Muslim racism in Ireland
An informative report by Dr James Carr on racism and bigotry against Muslims in Ireland has been published by the University of Limerick. Based on a survey of Irish Muslims on their experiences of anti-Muslim hostility, complemented by one-to-one interviews and focus group discussions, the report found that 36% of respondents felt they had been targeted on the basis of being identified as Muslim.
Dr Carr writes: “The manner in which this hostility manifested varied. Participants reported experiencing physical assaults (22%) ranging from being struck, having hijabs forcibly removed, to being pushed, spat at; some reported being threatened or harassed (20%). A white Irish male revert to Islam recalls his experiences of physical forms of abuse: ‘I have been pushed and have had people spit in my face, for being Muslim’. Fewer participants (14%) indicated that they had property damaged. Those who detailed how this manifested referred to tyres being slashed, having eggs thrown at their home inter alia.”
The survey found that women, who were more easily identified as Muslim because of their dress, experienced higher levels of anti-Muslim hostility (44%) and discrimination (40%) than men (28% and 22% respectively). Women interviewees also reported their frustration at being subjected to anti-Muslim stereotyping and regarded condescendingly as passive victims of male oppression.
Dr Carr adds: “The discourse of oppressed Muslim women also serves to ‘legitimise’ the deployment of ‘liberation tactics’ by those would be ‘liberators’ of the oppressed. The impact these ‘tactics’ have on the Muslim female participants in this study includes shock, depression, feelings of fear and vulnerability. Jada explains how she was told to ‘take that thing rag off your head you you’re too good looking for that’ by a patient in the hospital she works in.”
Schools top source of police concern over radicalisation
Schools are referring to the police record numbers of pupils and staff identified as being at risk of radicalisation.
Official data to be released on Tuesday will show that the details of 1,281 people were referred to the government’s “Prevent” scheme, up from 748 the year before, with officers citing the civil war in Syria as the main reason for the increase.
Sir Peter Fahy, the chief constable of Manchester police who leads on extremism for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), told the Guardian that schools were now the greatest source of concern for the police, followed by local authorities, the NHS and then higher education.
But he said people should not be surprised that “Muslim lads” felt compelled to travel to Syria after seeing in the media the atrocities committed there.
Since 2007, 1,450 children aged 18 and under have been referred to Prevent, the government’s scheme to tackle extremism, the Acpo figures show.
The disclosure that education is at the forefront of anti-terror measures comes in the wake of the Trojan Horse scandal, in which Ofsted and the Department for Education placed five schools in inner-city Birmingham into special measures.
Fahy defended Prevent, saying it was “just trying to look out for vulnerable young people and to try and avoid using a criminal justice intervention”.
He said: “It’s been a difficult issue with some of the people we know who have been wanting to go to Syria and the people who have come back. Do you want to prosecute them? We have stopped young people on the way to the airport going to Syria. They have not been prosecuted but instead we are working with other agencies to get them help.”
Fahy risked criticism from some quarters by adding: “We all feel desperate about Syria. I have written to my MP. I have watched those reports about Aleppo and Homs and say: ‘What the hell can I do?’ Don’t be surprised that Muslim lads look at that and say: ‘What the hell can I do but go out there and help them.'”
If Cage has broken the law, let it be prosecuted; this reeks of the police state
“Is it mere coincidence that Cage has had bank accounts closed down, its staff targeted, and pressure heaped on its funders by the Charity Commission all the space of a few months since Begg’s arrest? If this is a concerted effort to silence Cage, who is behind it and why?”
Alex Delmar-Morgan and Peter Oborne challenge the persecution of Cage.
Trojan Horse scandal: Birmingham accuses Ofsted head of smear campaign
England’s Chief Inspector of Schools is today accused of abandoning “objectivity and independence” in his handling of the Trojan Horse scandal and of “tarring” a generation of Muslim children with “the brush of extremism”.
In a coordinated attack city leaders, officials and businessmen in Birmingham said Sir Michael Wilshaw’s “ill-advised and ill-informed” approach to “isolated” problems in the city had damaged community relations and led to a teacher recruitment crisis. They suggest the Chief Inspector is attempting to deflect attention from Ofsted’s failure to identify problems in schools they previously judged “outstanding”.
“While we have no intention of belittling the serious issues at play, Sir Michael has crossed the line from [giving] independent advice on the schools system to a full-on attack on the city of Birmingham,” said Jerry Blackett, chief executive of Birmingham Chambers of Commerce. “The Chief Inspector of Schools should be motivated by overall improvement for the children of the city. His tirades appear to be motivated either by politics or self-publicity, or both.”
He went on to accuse the Ofsted head of deliberately trying to damage Birmingham. “Sir Michael forgets that these public and high profile attacks go way beyond supporting the city in improving schools performance, safeguarding or governance. He entirely ignores the numerous success stories and positive examples from the area to focus on the negative experiences of a minority.”
Until now, senior figures in Birmingham have remained diplomatic in their comments about Ofsted’s Trojan Horse investigation, despite private misgivings about its remit, method of inspection, and findings.
Last week, however, Sir Michael used an appearance before MPs to lay the blame for problems found in five Birmingham schools squarely at the door of the city council. Now senior local government officials and politicians have accused Sir Michael of deliberately misrepresenting problems with governance in a small number of schools by associating them with a wider threat of Islamic extremism.
Legal challenge to French mayor’s ban of Muslim hijab on beach
After two mothers wearing Muslim hijabs, or headscarves, were refused access to a beach in the French municipality of Wissous, its regional government of Essone on Saturday legally challenged Wissous’ ban on the wearing of religious symbols.
The Versailles Administrative Court, approached in an urgent joint application by Essone and by the Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF), was due to give its decision late Saturday afternoon.
Wissous Mayor Richard Trinquier, of the right-wing UMP party, had been at the beach the previous Saturday and had made the decision to turn the women away. Wissous is about 30 kilometres south of Paris and is a popular summer leisure spot.
Trinquier told the hearing the beach rule protected France’s commitment to secularism. He said it was in no way an obstacle to the practice of religion, but that there had been an increasing presence of religious symbols in public, which were “an obstacle to living together”.
The applicants argued that the by-law forbidding religious symbols on the beach established by the mayor amounted to “religious discrimination” that “violates the principles of the Republic”.
The rule “violates a fundamental freedom, the freedom of religious belief”, argued the lawyer for the CCIF, Sefen Guezguez. He said it showed a misunderstanding of the law.
‘Trojan Horse affair fuels Islamophobia’ in Newham
More than 60 teachers in Newham have signed an open letter to Michael Gove, saying the Trojan Horse affair has increased Islamophobia in the borough.
The letter, written by award-winning poet Michael Rosen and author Alan Gibbons, was also signed by Alex Kenny, secretary of the east London branch of the National Union of Teachers. It accuses the Education Secretary and the press of using the story to fuel racism in schools and ignoring allegations of the Trojan Horse dossier being a fake.
Robert Ferguson, of Newham Sixth Form College, said the affair had been conducted in a way that equated Muslims in education with extremism and terror. He said: “This is having an impact especially in Newham and other parts of east London. I have been approached by colleagues really concerned, but also determined to take a stand.”