Birmingham schools: Stop the Muslim witch hunt!

The plot is straight out of a spy novel: ‘A letter is received which uncovers an Islamic plot to subvert the city’s schools, brainwash all the children and then take over the city.  The Government bring a former spy out of retirement to undercover the jihadist plot and save the day’.

Only this isn’t fiction and only some of it is fact.  Worse still, at best it is based upon a spurious letter, at worst - a complete hoax. The letter has prompted Secretary of State Michael Gove to instruct a former head of counter terrorism-Peter Clarke to investigate allegations of an ‘extremist plot’, to infiltrate Birmingham schools.

Today the Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, Chris Sims condemned the move to appoint as "desperately unfortunate" the appointment of Peter Clarke to look into allegations of Islamic fundamentalists infiltrating schools.

Sims stated that the letter that sparked the controversy could be a hoax and was not being treated as a criminal matter. He said Clarke's appointment made it appear as though the saga was being officially handled as a counter-terrorism issue.

This morning the Father Oliver Coss, Vice Chair of Governors for Regents Park School, one of the schools highlighted in the letter also condemned the move stating on Radio 4’s Today programme,

“ We have in our community people trying (to paraphrase the Prime Minister) to work hard and do the right thing in intolerable conditions in some of the poorest neighbourhoods in the nation and they now find that the Department of Education suspects their children of being terrorists."

He added,

“We do not have evidence of extremism in our school. “

The biggest tragedy in all if this is how on the basis of an unsubstantiated letter, which in all probability is a hoax, newspapers such as the Daily Express,  The Daily Mail, and the Telegraph are writing about it almost as fact giving the perception of  sheer fear and loathing for Muslims in Birmingham.  Adding to the mix of prejudice and by some blatant Islamophobia is the Government’s announcement of an expert in counter terrorism to investigate the Birmingham schools.

Surely the right thing to do would be to investigate the letter, rather than condemn communities until they can prove their innocence.

Simon Woolley