Newsnight: Close Links Between Hizb ut Tahrir and the ISF School

7 Comments

1. Abdul Hamid
   Posted November 28, 2009 at 12:54 PM | Permalink

   The truth is out.

2. Effendi
   Posted November 28, 2009 at 3:33 PM | Permalink

   There is more to come:
   http://www.ams-uk.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=22&Itemid=32

   Watch this space.

3. Dania
   Posted November 28, 2009 at 11:28 PM | Permalink

   It is not exactly fair to link this school to HT just because one of the trustee’s husband is HT. This school works very close with the council, sure starts and the comunity. It has a lot of people in and out of this school, the ofsted gave this school a good report as I have read it myself. Teachers TV had visited the school and talked with the children, they were very pleased with the way the children were thinking and behaving.
   Most of the children who graduated from this school joined either state schools or grammer schools and they are achieving very well both accadimically and socially.

4. Abu Faris
   Posted November 29, 2009 at 12:26 AM | Permalink

   It is not exactly fair to link this school to HT just because one of the trustee’s husband is HT.

   The school is intimately linked to HT, as this and previous reports on Spittoon make perfectly clear. I find it strange that you seem to have missed this.

   Incidentally, as far as I know, Teachers TV do not offer opinions of individual schools. They are not an inspectorate.

   I wonder if you could provide the link to Teachers’ TV’s report on the school?

   Thanks

5. Abu Faris
   Posted November 29, 2009 at 1:00 AM | Permalink

   I apologise for the length of this quotation from a commentor on Harry’s Place,; but it is directly pertinent:

   mettaculture
   27 November 2009, 8:48 pm

   There is a truly shoddy backstory to all this.

   There has long been a disaster waiting to happen in relation to Muslim faith schools.

   The possibility of extremist focus in some schools that we see now was warned of in 2005 by the Chief Education Inspector David Bell.

   Of course he was accused of Islamophobia.

   David Bell said his organisation had identified a significant growth in the number of independent faith schools.

   He singled out Muslim schools for criticism.

   “This growth needs to be carefully but sensitively monitored by government to ensure that pupils at all schools receive an understanding of not only their own faith but other faiths and the wider tenets of British society,” he said.

   “We must not allow recognition of diversity to become apathy in the face of any challenge to our coherence as a nation. We must be intolerant of intolerance.”

   Mr Bell’s speech had included an extract……saying many new Muslim schools must adapt their curriculum “to ensure that it provides pupils with a broad general knowledge of public institutions and services in England and helps them to acquire an appreciation of and respect for other cultures in a way that promotes tolerance and harmony.”

   Even though this assessment was fully based in a rigorous Ofsted assessment and follow up of Evangelical Christian and Muslim schools, David Bell was pilloried and briefed against by another Staff member of Ofsted.

   The regulations stated that faith schools were required to ensure that they ;

   2(d) provide pupils with a broad general knowledge of public institutions and services in England

   2(e) assist pupils to acquire an appreciation of and respect for their own and other cultures in a way that promotes tolerance and harmony between different cultural traditions.

   The data for 2003-2004 showed that:

   there were 50 Muslim schools and 40 Christian schools – eight Evangelical and most Christian Brethren – in the transitional phase of reaching acceptable educational standards.

   In the 2003-04 inspection year, almost all of the Christian schools were assessed on whether they were meeting the two regulations at issue.

   Of the Muslim schools, 41 of the 50 were assessed on the “English institutions” rule and 33 on the “other cultures” rule

   A quarter of the Christian schools and two thirds of the Muslim schools did not meet the first requirement.

   Forty-six per cent of Christian schools and 54% of Muslim schools did not meet the second.

   ….. the data available so far showed that half the Christian Brethren schools had been revisited and all were meeting the requirements.

   About two fifths of the Muslim schools had been revisited, and about a quarter of those which previously did not meet the regulations were doing so.

   So about a dozen were not.

   http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4215517.stm

   So in 2005 it was perfectly apparent that some Muslim faith schools were seriously under performing in terms of their commitment to conform to the required regulations

   I don’t know what happened to David Bell, he is no longer Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, the post is currently held by Christine Gilbert.

   I do know what happened to the mainstream Ofsted inspection of faith schools however; it was nobbled.

   The goal posts were moved, the rules changed and the referees became largely self selected.

   These, and only these, faith schools were given a new name ‘Bridge Schools’ and an entirely new inspectorate, with special faith based criteria, was established for them.

   The Bridge Schools Inspectorate was approved in 2008 as a body for the purposes of inspecting selected registered independent schools in membership of the Association of Muslim Schools UK (AMSUK) and the Christian Schools’ Trust (CST), under section
   162A(1) of the Education Act 2002 as amended from September 2005.

   There are currently 55 schools confirmed to be in the inspection remit of The Bridge Schools Inspectorate.

   The schools are evangelical Christian or Muslim schools, serving faith
   communities, which provide a distinctive religious curriculum alongside secular studies.

   In effect this Inspectorate is independent from the mainstream Ofsted and is described as being ’similar’ to the Ofsted to the Independent schools Inspectorate.

   The first report for the new segregated faith based ‘Bridge schools Inspectorate’ has now been produced and is available for view.

   I think the legitimate question rather than accepting the ‘fait accompli’ is to ask why?, notwithstanding the fact that some wilfully blind commenters will still seek to find Islamophobia in any systematic and perfectly fair questioning of whether certain faith schools are meeting basic criteria applicable to all other schools in the mainstream.

   I see nothing Islamophobic in opposing the de facto independence of some Christian and Muslim faith schools, that in the very criteria of their Inspectorate are revealed to have quite a different set of concerns and thus criteria for evaluation than mainstream schools.

   The Bridge Schools Inspectorate was established to provide an opportunity for cooperation between faith groups and to enable them to come together to form an independent inspectorate with specialist expertise in schools with a distinctive religious ethos.

   The inspectorate gained approval from the Secretary of State for
   Education to inspect schools belonging to the Christian Schools’ Trust and the Association of Muslim Schools UK throughout England and it began its work in October 2008.

   The Bridge Schools Inspectorate’s model of inspection has been agreed with the DCSF and is set out clearly in the Inspectorate’s Framework for Inspection.

   The inspection model is similar to Ofsted’s, in ensuring that schools meet the regulations for independent schools.

   It also reports on whether the schools continue to meet the expectations of the Christian Schools’ Trust and the Association of Muslim Schools UK.

   Schools are given approximately five days notice of inspection and are inspected on a three yearly cycle.

   Inspection teams are led by experienced former HMI who understand the distinctive characteristics of faith based education and have had substantial experience of leading independent school inspections.

   Team inspectors are drawn from the staff of schools involved. Each association puts forward candidates with substantial experience of teaching, leadership and management to be trained as inspectors.

   Candidates are trained by the Bridge Schools Inspectorate as team inspectors and become accredited Bridge Schools Inspectorate inspectors.

   In order to remain accredited, inspectors need to participate in at least one inspection a year and to inspect at least one school from outside their own association once every four years.

   http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/content/download/…/200809_BSI_AnnualReport.pd

   In other words Evangelical Christian and Christian Bretheren and Muslim Schools get to Inspect themselves and create and manage their own Inspectorate under the fig leaf of a National Schools Inspectorate.

   What the hell is an Orwellian titled ‘Bridge School’ if it is not a recently constructed bridge leading away from a universally underpinned consensus of education as the foundation for a shared civic identity and towards an ethno-religiously perceived communal identity?

   It is a scandal that these schools have effectively been left to pursue their own faith agenda at the expense of a shared civically minded national experience of education.

   Islamophobia has nothing to do with it. The current debacle of Hizb ut Tahir’s involvement in running schools is hardly surprising given the irresponsibility of the deliberate ‘arms length’ and entirely self serving inspectorate.

   What is more unacceptable perhaps, is the arrogance of a Government that has by ’sleight of hand’ created a new sectarian faction in education by acting as if these matters are purely a private one of faith, rather than a national and constitutional matter that should be at the heart of the democratic process.

   Emphases added

6. Abu Faris
   Posted November 29, 2009 at 7:12 AM | Permalink

   Effendi,

   Interesting you should link to the Association of Muslim Schools (AMS) press release about this matter.

   As you are doubtless aware, the AMS Chairman is Mohamed Mukadam. Mukadam was in the news earlier this year, attacking the Civitas report, “Music Chess and Other Sins”. Dominic Whiteman, a researcher on that report, demolished Mukadam’s attack, exposing Mukadam’s form for double-dealing:

   [T]he MCB published a predictable and unfounded riposte by the chair of the Association of Muslim Schools in the UK,Dr Mohamed Mukadam, who ridiculously re-titled the report “Lying, Slander &Other Sins” and launched a personal attack against my estimable colleague, the main author, Dr Denis MacEoin, basically saying he made the shocking reams of evidence against his schools all up.

   The published report was focused on Muslim schools’websites in the UK. The fact is we were pertinent enough to make screen grabs of every website months ago as the investigation progressed – knowing that the schools would attempt to destroy the evidence as soon as the report emerged into the public domain. Mukadamknows that he presides over certain schools which are not fit for purpose -schools which have no place in the United Kingdom. He should be ashamed and embarrassed and resign his position immediately. Mukadam, Head Teacher of Madani Islamic High School in Leicester, has a history of saying one thing when the truth is something completely other:

   His school became an object for controversy when it passed a ruling that non-Muslim girls would have to wear hijab, then announced that it would not take any non-Muslims after all.

   (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-410312/Non-Muslim-students-Islamic-school-forced-wear-headscarves.html)

   ‘…when the Madani Islamic High School in Leicester put itself forward to receive state funding, there were objections from the local population who thought it would endanger community relations. An adjudicator was brought in to rule on the objections and was reassured by the school’s founders that they would take aten per cent quota of non-Muslims in order to encourage “community cohesion”.The adjudicator believed them, and said in his report, that approved the school: “One further tangible expression of the school’s inclusiveness lies inits commitment to reserve 10 per cent of its places for non-Muslim pupils.Well, the school is now open and the ten per cent promise has gone by the board. Madani’s head teacher, Mohammed Mukadam, said later that non-Muslimpupils will only be accepted once demand from Muslims has been “exhausted”. But as there were 400 applications for the 120 places in year seven this September,all pupils will be Muslim.’

   http://westminsterjournal.com/content/view/226/30/

   It should be of concern, then, to discover that Mohamed Mukadam is not only close to the JI and MB friendly MCB, but that his name appears at the very head of the list of Board Members of The Bridge Schools Inspectorate.

   http://www.bridgeschoolsinspectorate.co.uk/bsi_board

   Who are The Bridge School Inspectorate? According to their own puff:

   The Bridge Schools Inspectorate has approval from the Secretary of State for Education and began its work in September 2008 to inspect schools belonging to the Christian Schools’ Trust and the Association of Muslim Schools throughout England.

   http://www.bridgeschoolsinspectorate.co.uk/home

   Effectively (hat tip, mettaculture on HP), this means that independent faith schools get to set up their own inspections, which is utterly counter-productive, of course, from the point of view of the clear need for an independent school inspection regime.

   Another Board member of AMS is the well-known and entirely self-appointed education “expert”, Idris Mears – who lo and behold is also a leading light in the MCB. Here he is defending Sacranie’s repellent views on homosexuality in a letter he jointly signed to the Times:

   The practice of homosexuality is regarded as being sinful in Islam.

   We are deeply concerned about the breakdown of basic family values and the undermining of the key institution of marriage in Britain today. All Britons, whether they are in favour of homosexuality or not, should be allowed to freely express their views in an atmosphere free of intimidation or bullying. We cannot claim to be a truly free and open society while we are trying to silence dissenting views.

   http://www.mcb.org.uk/media/letter124.php

   Sacranie was at the time (2006) being investigated by the police over his strongly expressed homophobia. Idris Mears (along with others at the MCB) affirmed at the time their belief that:

   Sir Iqbal’s views faithfully reflected mainstream Islamic teachings.

   Idris Mears also maintains a CV on anti-Semite and MB guru Qawadari’s Islamonline website:

   http://www.islamonline.net/livedialogue/english/Guestcv.asp?hGuestID=ZzMmP7

   The question is surely whether MCB members such as Mears who hold to such homophobic and bigoted views and duplicitous Islamists such as Makadam (who is also on record at the time as supporting the MCB letter to the Times) should be allowed anywhere near any sort of school inspectorate.

7. Abdul Basit
   Posted November 29, 2009 at 12:25 PM | Permalink

   I must say that Spittoon have nothing better to do than attack Muslims who are working for a sincere change i.e. the Khilafah. You spittoon lot including the Qulliam lot are no where in any community, you lot are unknown and will remain unknown as all of you are insincere. No one supports your ideas and the call for Khilafah is gaining momentum day by day and there is plenty of evidence to indicate that Muslims want the implementation of Sharia and the unity of the Muslim ummah. The Khilafah is the entity that our beloved prophet ordered us to establish and it is the entity that the sahaba established which is a fact that no one can deny.
   You lot are time wasters. Do something better with your time and support the cause for Islam, don’t be an obstacle.