The Daily Telegraph publishes a puff-piece on Caroline Cox, the woman who invited Geert Wilders to the House of Lords. Some defender of Muslims.
Category Archives: UK
Education trust accused of Islamist ‘Trojan Horse plot’ receives hate mail
The trust that runs schools at the centre of claims of a Islamist “plot” in Birmingham says it has received hate mail after a series of leaks purporting to come from Department for Education and Ofsted investigations were published in the media.
Park View education trust, the governing body of the Park View, Nansen and Golden Hillock schools in Birmingham, said that the leaks and disclosures were “causing unwarranted and unnecessary alarm amongst families who are seeing reports of their schools ‘closing’ and teachers being ‘removed’ alongside any number of other sensational allegations.
“And just this morning one of our schools received hate mail, which we can only conclude is a direct consequence of media reporting,” it said.
Teachers complain about behaviour of Ofsted inspectors investigating ‘plot’
Teachers from Birmingham schools being investigated by Ofsted over an alleged Islamist takeover plot have reportedly been told their schools will be downgraded because they were “not teaching anti-terrorism”.
Other teachers were asked by Ofsted inspectors if they were homophobic, according to Roger King, the National Union of Teachers’ executive member for Birmingham, who said he had received complaints from members whose schools were being investigated in one of several inquiries into the alleged plot. “You do question how objective Ofsted were when they went into those schools,” King said.
The claims come as Sir Michael Wilshaw, the chief inspector of schools in England, announced he was going to Birmingham to take personal charge of the investigation into 16 schools in the city, amid media reports claiming all the schools had been downgraded after visits by Ofsted inspectors.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali and the dangerous anti-Islamic logic of the war on terror
Ayaan Hirsi Ali lost an honorary degree from Brandeis for articulating the same twisted thinking as Dick Cheney, argues Eric Levitz.
Islamic extremism a ‘deadly’ problem for charities, William Shawcross says
Islamist extremism is the “most deadly” problem charities face, the chairman of the sector’s watchdog has said.
William Shawcross, who took on the role at the Charity Commission in October 2012, said it was “ludicrous” that people with convictions for terrorism or money laundering were not automatically disqualified from setting up charities or becoming trustees. He said he has written to the prime minister, David Cameron, to ask for changes to the law.
Shawcross told the Sunday Times the commission was taking tough measures against any charity that was “sending cash to extremist groups in Syria” or “dispatching young Britons for training in Syria by al-Qaida or other extremist groups”.
In his first interview since becoming chairman, he said: “The problem of Islamist extremism and charities … is not the most widespread problem we face in terms of abuse of charities, but is potentially the most deadly. And it is, alas, growing.
“I’m sure that in places like Syria and Somalia it is very, very difficult for agencies always to know what the end use of their aid is, but they’ve got to be particularly vigilant.”
Far-right protest outside London Central Mosque
LONDON: Members of the racist English Defence League (EDL) staged a protest outside Regent’s Park Mosque here during Jummah prayers, attempting to spark confrontation between the worshippers and the EDL but the Metropolitan police intervened to stop the break out of violence.
Dozens of EDL members arrived outside London’s historic mosque for the timing of Jummah prayers to provoke the worshippers into a confrontation but it’s believed that at least three people arrested belonged to the EDL. A spokesman of Scotland Yard told The News that “a man has been arrested for attacking the police and two are in custody for causing affray during the protest”.
The turnout for Jummah prayers due to the Easter Holidays was more than the usual and arrangements were made also in the car park of the mosque to accommodate thousands who had turned for the prayers.
The EDL protestors, draped in England flags and most of them drunk and abusive, arrived half an hour before the prayers and started shouting racial epithets over their own loudspeaker, accompanied by patriotic music such as “God Save the Queen”. They called Muslims “terrorist scum”, “go back to your countries”, “Muslims not needed”, “shut down the mosques”.
Tristram Hunt endorses ‘Trojan Horse’ hysteria
Tristram Hunt, the shadow education secretary, will warn on Saturday that “the pursuit of a divisive religious extremism” – as shown in an alleged conspiracy to take over schools in Birmingham – threatens to undermine Britain’s modern multicultural society.
Hunt’s remarks to the annual conference of the NASUWT teaching union in Birmingham follow the uncovering of a dossier named Operation Trojan Horse, claiming to reveal a plot to overthrow teachers and governors insecular state schools in the city and run them on strict Islamic principles.
Government review of the Muslim Brotherhood
In a press release yesterday the government formally announced its inquiry into the “the philosophy, activities, impact and influence on UK national interests, at home and abroad, of the Muslim Brotherhood and of government policy towards the organisation”. It is inviting submissions.
Anti-Muslim suspicion in Britain has a whiff of McCarthyism about it
Allegations of an Islamic takeover plot in Birmingham schools aren’t justified by the evidence – and the government response is way out of proportion, argues Salma Yaqoob.
See also “Birmingham MP criticises Gove over ‘Islamist school plot’ investigation”, Guardian, 16 April 2014
Police find no evidence of criminality by Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman
A police investigation into allegations of fraud and financial mismanagement by the mayor of a London council has found “no credible evidence of criminality”.
Lutfur Rahman, elected mayor of Tower Hamlets, east London, was accused by the BBC’s Panorama of more than doubling public funding to Bangladeshi and Somali groups from £1.5m to £3.6m in the face of recommendations from council officers. He denied the allegations, saying they had been motivated by racism and Islamophobia.
The communities secretary, Eric Pickles, sent inspectors into the borough to investigate Rahman’s activities, but Metropolitan police officers who reviewed the allegations found no evidence of fraud or other offences.
He will face no further action from police “at this stage”, but the force said it was appropriate for outside auditors from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to continue their financial review of the council.
A Scotland Yard statement said: “On Friday 4 April the Metropolitan Police Service received three files of material from the Department for Communities and Local Government relating to the London borough of Tower Hamlets. These comprised material referred to the DCLG by a member of the public and by the BBC Panorama programme.
“The files have been reviewed by a team of officers over the past six days. In addition, officers have liaised with PricewaterhouseCoopers, who are conducting a full and wide-ranging audit of financial matters at the London borough of Tower Hamlets.
“There is no credible evidence of criminality within the files to provide reasonable grounds to suspect that fraud or any other offence has been committed at this stage. Therefore the MPS will not be investigating at this point in time and believe that it is appropriate for the material to be reviewed further by PwC and DCLG. We will continue to liaise with them should their audit uncover any evidence of criminality.”
PwC has been asked to report back to Pickles by 30 June. Tower Hamlets council, which says it has seen no evidence that its processes have been run inappropriately, welcomed the police statement.