The Shakhsiyah Balls Up

This is a guest post by Abdul Hamid al Manchesteri

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Who actually benefits from obscuring the facts on the Islam Shakhsiyah Foundation (ISF)? If this were a BNP-run foundation overseeing two schools, there is no way any Secretary of State for Education could have contemplated scoring political points at the expense of the oppostion’s fumbling research. But when it is Hizb-ut-Tahrir in the spotlight, the government plays the “divisive smears” race card and the Tories run meekly for cover.

But when the facts are ineveitably going to surface concerning the direct links between the Hizb and ISF, there will be no place to hide for those who doing their best to deny them; step forward Ed Balls, ISF and the Hizb.

Andrew Gilligan hits all the right notes on Ed Balls’ role in the Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation scandal:

The headteacher of one of the schools, Farah Ahmed, who remains a trustee to this day, refuses to deny that she was a Hizb member and has written in a Hizb journal condemning the “corrupt western concepts of materialism and freedom.”

And Ofsted – far from “satisfying themselves that there were no problems” – actually condemned one of the two schools as “inadequate,” questioned the suitability of the staff, and said that it could do more “to promote cultural tolerance and harmony.” That was in November 2007.

And Ofsted – far from “satisfying themselves that there were no problems” – actually condemned one of the two schools as “inadequate,” questioned the suitability of the staff, and said that it could do more “to promote cultural tolerance and harmony.” That was in November 2007.

By May 2008, according to a follow-up report, the school had been magically transformed, and was now “good”. That second report, however, was written by an inspector with, at the very least, personal connections to Islamic groups.

I fear Mr Balls’s heavy reliance on these Ofsted reports to defend the schools is about to make him look pretty silly. Ofsted is also, of course, the body that rated children’s services in Haringey “good” – in the same year that the borough was comprehensively failing Baby P.

But there’s a broader point. If taxpayer-funded schools were run by supporters of the BNP, there would be an outcry. Hizb ut Tahrir is an Islamic version of the BNP: not actually violent, but openly anti-Semitic, racist, and an enemy of liberal society.

Do Ed Balls and New Labour really want to be the friends and defenders of such people? Does Balls really think it’s good politics to be the Minister for Hizb ut Tahrir?

Not for the first time, the minister has allowed his thirst for a quick hit on the Tories to overcome his common sense. And not for the first time, he has scored a tactical victory, but dropped a massive strategic clanger.