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.
Category Archives: UK
Statement from Park View Educational Trust on Golden Hillock School
According to BBC News a leaked Ofsted report claims that pupils are not being protected from extremist views at a Birmingham school named in the so-called “Trojan Horse” inquiry. Golden Hillock School in Sparkhill was described as inadequate by inspectors.
You can read the Park View Educational Trust’s response here.
Michael Gove accused of using ‘Trojan Horse’ row to push anti-Islam agenda
Michael Gove has been accused of cynically using the “Trojan Horse” schools row to push an ideological anti-Islamic agenda within the Government.
Whitehall sources revealed that behind the scenes the Education Secretary has been pressing David Cameron for months to widen the Government’s definition of Muslim “extremism”. And they suggested that he has used allegations of a plot to “take over” a number of schools in Birmingham to press the Prime Minister to agree tough new measures to secularise schools in Muslim areas.
One said: “Michael Gove’s views are so incredibly black and white. It’s either his way or no way. He seems to think that anybody who strictly follows Islam is not really integrated. And he thinks anybody who holds conservative Muslim views is a bit of an extremist. He has been using Birmingham to pursue an ideological agenda that he’s had for many years.”
Tories admit convicted racists into European parliamentary group
Two anti-immigration politicians with criminal convictions for inciting ethnic tension were admitted on Wednesday night to David Cameron’s eurosceptic alliance in the European parliament.
The situation is the result of an unexpected move that defied the reservations of some in Downing Street in which Tory MEPs overwhelmingly voted to join forces with the Danish People’s party and True Finns. The two parties are former allies of Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence party.
The decision helps take the European Conservatives and Reformists group [ECR], established by Mr Cameron in 2009, to 55 seats, making it the fourth biggest group. A planned vote on also admitting the anti-euro Alternative für Deutschland was postponed after Mr Cameron warned that this would sour relations with Berlin.
Morten Messerschmidt, a senior DPP figure and a rising star in Danish politics, was convicted in 2002 for publishing material that appeared to link a multiethnic society to rape, violence and forced marriages. Jussi Halla-aho, a newly elected True Finn MEP, was convicted in 2012 of stirring ethnic tensions after writing a blog on freedom of speech that claimed Islam “reveres paedophilia”.
Thug who smashed elderly Muslim man’s skull in Uxbridge racist attack has sentence cut
An Uxbridge teenager who booted a 79-year-old pensioner in the head – shattering his skull – during a racist attack has had his sentence slashed on appeal.
Fraser Danny Giles, 18, punched and kicked the elderly man, launching into the brutal assault in Chiltern View Road, Uxbridge, after asking the blameless grandfather in traditional Muslim dress if he was a ‘white Muslim’.
Giles, who address was given as Enfield Close, was handed eight years’ detention in a young offenders’ institution, after he admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent at Isleworth Crown Court in December. But three senior judges at London’s Appeal Court have now upheld a sentence challenge by Giles, reducing his custodial term by a quarter to six years after ruling his original punishment excessive.
When did Michael Gove become the government’s expert on Muslims or extremism?
“Michael Gove believes there has been a plot by extremist Muslims to take over schools in Birmingham and is preparing to drive them out,” reports the Times on its front page. “The education secretary is convinced that a small group of extremists has infiltrated schools in the city with tactics similar to those used by the Militant Tendency in the Labour Party in the 1980s, a senior source has said.”
Here’s the kicker: “Mr Gove blames their influence on a reluctance within Whitehall, especially in the Home Office, to confront extremism unless it develops into terrorism and believes that a robust response is needed to ‘drain the swamp’.”
Since when, however, did Michael Gove become an expert on counter-extremism strategies? Robust or otherwise?
Mehdi Hasan questions the credentials of the politician responsible for the “Trojan Horse” witch-hunt.
Education experts voice fury over Ofsted’s ‘Trojan Horse’ schools inquiry
An ideology “at odds with traditional British values” has taken hold at the schools inspectorate Ofsted, a group of leading educationalists and Muslim leaders have warned.
Led by Sir Tim Brighouse, a former chief education officer in Birmingham, the 20 experts – unhappy at the way Ofsted has conducted inspections into schools allegedly infiltrated by conservative Muslims – say in a letter to the Guardian that it is at risk of compromising political independence by producing “tarnished reports”.
Their intervention comes days before Ofsted publishes results of an inspection of 21 schools ordered by education secretary, Michael Gove, after claims conservative Muslims were trying to infiltrate the governing bodies of Birmingham schools in a plot dubbed Operation Trojan Horse.
On Tuesday, further evidence also emerged of abrupt shifts in Ofsted’s inspection results, with a leaked inspection report showing that a second secondary school in the city that had been previously rated as good or outstanding in November 2013 is expected to be downgraded to inadequate when its new report is published next week.
Describing the mass inspection as “a landmark in the history of education in these islands”, Brighouse and the other signatories argue: “First-hand accounts of the Ofsted inspections that have emerged are disturbing. They suggest that inspectors were poorly prepared and had an agenda that calls into question Ofsted’s claim to be objective and professional in its appraisal of standards in schools serving predominantly Muslim pupils.
“It is beyond belief that schools which were judged less than a year ago to be outstanding are now widely reported as ‘inadequate’, despite having the same curriculum, the same students, the same leadership team and the same governing body. This is uncharted territory, with Ofsted being guided by an ideology at odds with the traditional British values which schools are meant to espouse, particularly fairness, justice and respect for others.”
Islam row: Peter Robinson makes public apology for causing offence to Muslims after meeting in Belfast
First Minister Peter Robinson has publicly apologised for offence caused to Muslims following comments he made in defence of a firebrand pastor who denounced Islam as “satanic”.
Speaking outside the Islamic Centre in Belfast following a meeting with Muslim leaders, Mr Robinson said he had made a “face-to-face, man-to-man” apology.
“I have had a very welcoming visit to the Belfast Islamic Centre. I have been received in friendship, and respect,” he said. “I came here to make it very clear that the members of the Islamic community are a very important and valued part of our society in Northern Ireland. I know many of you centre on an issue of an issue of an apology – I apologise to these gentlemen, if anything I said had caused them hurt. I can see in many cases, it has. I say I apologise, face-to-face, man-to-man. The way it should be done.”
Last week the DUP leader came under fire for defending the Pastor James McConnell’s remarks, telling the Irish News he would not trust Muslims involved in violence or those devoted to sharia law, which covers everything from public executions to what adherents should do if colleagues invite them to the pub after work or college. Mr Robinson said he would “trust them to go to the shops” for him. He later clarified his own remarks and met Muslim leaders in Belfast to apologise privately.
But despite offering a public apology to Muslims, this evening Mr Robinson fell short of condemning comments made by Pastor McConnell during a sermon last month. After addressing the waiting media, one man – who had earlier visited the Islamic Centre – brought up the issue of Mr Robinson’s defence of the controversial pastor’s remarks.
“It is not the role of any politician to give give doctrinal opinions,” Mr Robinson said tonight. “I am not a theologian, I am not in a position to give the view of doctrine. People have a right to free speech, but everyone who has that right…they must exercise that right with responsibility, and care.”
The government review into the Muslim Brotherhood in Britain: Unravelling the motives
The Cordoba Foundation convened a timely and important seminar at the Royal Overseas League, Green Park in London, which analysed the British Prime Minister’s decision to conduct a “review” into the Muslim Brotherhood in Britain. The seminar examined the motivations and the potential outcomes of the review.
A distinguished panel comprised of Lord Ken Macdonald QC, journalist Peter Oborne, Dr Maha Azzam, Chair of Egyptians for Democracy UK, Mona al-Qazzaz, Muslim Brotherhood spokeswoman and Dr Anas Altikriti, CEO of The Cordoba Foundation, addressed the topic from numerous angles and took questions from the floor.
The packed audience included academics, policy-makers, reporters and journalists, diplomats, campaigners, and faith and community leaders.
Pakistani man vows to flee Northern Ireland after race-hate attacks, blaming anti-Islamic atmosphere
A Pakistani man has vowed to flee Northern Ireland after he and a friend were injured in two racially motivated attacks – carried out within a matter of hours.
Less than 24 hours after attending an anti-racism rally in Belfast, friends Muhammad Khattak and Haroon Khan were assaulted and had their north Belfast home set upon by thugs yesterday.
In an interview with the Belfast Telegraph, Mr Khattak blamed the atmosphere stirred up by the fallout of an anti-Islamic sermon given by Pastor James McConnell, who was later backed by First Minister Peter Robinson.
In the six months since they moved into their home in Parkmount Street in the north of the city, they said they have suffered constant racial abuse.
Mr Khattak (24) said Peter Robinson’s remarks about not trusting Muslim terrorists “cast suspicion over every Muslim”. And he said the controversial words of Pastor McConnell gave his attackers “the licence” to do what they did. “They have lit the fire in the forest and it is not going to stop,” he told the Belfast Telegraph.