Category Archives: UK

‘Mega Mosque’ public inquiry for West Ham site starts at ExCel Centre

Posted on by Bob Pitt

NRAP Riverine Centre designA public inquiry into Newham Council’s rejection of plans for a mosque in West Ham has opened with supporters and opponents of the so-called “Mega Mosque” making their case.

The Abbey Mills Riverine Centre application for a 29,227sq m mosque in Canning Road was turned down by councillors in 2012 unanimously after local residents protested against plans.

But this prompted counter protests by local Muslims in favour of the new centre, which would cater for 9,000 worshipers in a site more than three times the floorspace of St Paul’s Cathedral.

A public inquiry held by the government’s Planning Inspectorate kicked off on Tuesday 3 at the ExCeL centre, and is expected to last until June 23.

The inquiry is also looking at the temporary permission granted for the site to be used as a smaller mosque for two years, which has now expired.

Representations will be made by the Newham People’s Alliance, a community group which supports the plans, and the MegaMosqueNoThanks campaign, run by ex-Newham councillor and former head of the Christian People’s Alliance, Alan Craig.

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Witch-hunt against Muslims in Birmingham – Get racist Tories out of schools

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Socialist Worker racist witch-hunt front pageA 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

South East Alliance to hold protest against Muslim Brotherhood in Cricklewood

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SEA anti-MB protest adA far-right organisation is planning to hold a protest outside the headquarters of a major Egyptian political group in Cricklewood on Saturday.

Members of South East Alliance (SEA) are due to demonstrate outside the headquarters of Muslim Brotherhood (MB) which is based in a flat above shops in Cricklewood Broadway.

MB was a praised political group in Egypt but were ousted from power amid popular demonstrations. They are believed to be launching a fight-back against Egypt’s military rulers from their new home.

SEA have denied speculated links to the English Defence League claiming they are “a non-political community based street movement”. However, their Facebook page is filled with anti-Muslim posts.

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Baroness Warsi at odds with Michael Gove over extremism claims in school

Posted on by Bob Pitt

It isn’t just Theresa May who seems to take issue with Michael Gove’s approach to tackling extremism in British schools.

Baroness Warsi has distanced herself from the education secretary’s response to allegations of an Islamist plot to take over Muslim-majority schools in Birmingham – and took a jab at Gove for not having any relevant life experience on the issue.

The senior Foreign Office minister, who also serves minister for faith and communities, said in an interview on Tuesday afternoon that the education secretary had to ensure he did not “make matters worse” by alienating Muslims.

In a speech to MPs yesterday, Gove said that all schools would in future be required to promote “British values” as it was confirmed that five Birmingham schools have been placed into special measures in the wake of the so-called ‘Trojan Horse’ extremism allegations.

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Luton Islamic school found ‘inadequate’ blames ‘a right extremist, Michael Gove, whipping up racist hysteria and Ofsted dancing to his poisonous tune’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Olive Tree Primary School website

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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MCB responds to ‘Trojan Horse’ witch-hunt

Posted on by Bob Pitt

We Need Clarity and Consistency in our Education Standards: British Muslims Respond to the Ofsted Reports of Schools in Birmingham

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) today noted its serious concern at the conduct and outcome of the Ofsted investigation into state schools in Birmingham.

The investigations were ordered by the Department for Education following the circulation of what is widely believed to be a fake dossier titled “Trojan Horse” outlining a plot of a ‘Muslim takeover of schools’.

These incendiary claims have not been proven, and there is widespread fear that the subsequent investigations have only deepened the problem, not resolved it at all. No extremism has been found, but the slur of extremism remains.

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Jim Fitzpatrick exploits ‘Trojan Horse’ witch-hunt to claim ‘Islamist plot’ in Tower Hamlets

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jim FitzpatrickA London MP today warned of the risk of a ‘Trojan Horse’-style Islamist plot to infiltrate councils in the capital amid claims of schools being targeted in Birmingham.

As Ofsted criticised five schools at the heart of the row, Labour’s Jim Fitzpatrick said there is a risk of “race politics” taking hold after the re-election of controversial mayor Lutfur Rahman in Tower Hamlets.

He said Labour had rejected “several hundred” applications from people the party believed could be “extremists” trying to infiltrate the borough’s politics, as well as expelling party members during the past five years.

“We think our act is pretty clean now, but that doesn’t stop people trying because that’s what was influencing our politics in the past and that’s certainly a way of working,” he told the Standard. “Much as the entryism, the Trojan Horse allegations [were] in education in Birmingham, the Trojan Horse in east London was a political one rather than an educational one.”

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Ofsted’s slur on the Muslim community of Park View School

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ofsted logo parody“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

Gove’s witch-hunt comes to Luton

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Olive Tree Primary SchoolA 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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