Jihadists 'Plot to Take over Birmingham Schools'

Education chiefs in Birmingham are investigating an alleged plot by Islamic fundamentalists to take over schools by ousting head teachers and staff members through a dirty tricks campaign.

The Birmingham Mail reports that it has received documents purporting to show that jihadists are launching an operation called ‘Trojan Horse’ through which they plan to orchestrate false allegations against staff members.

Once the original staff members are ousted, the group allegedly plan to install their own supporters in positions of influence and encourage the schools to educate children in strict Islamic principles. They would then apply for academy status, allowing them to be taken out of local authority control, and thus be freer to run the school along strict Islamic lines.

The plot to oust existing staff is said to involve recruiting hard-line parents to spread false allegations. One document says: “We have caused a great amount of organised disruption in Birmingham and as a result we now have our own Academies and are on our way to getting rid of more head teachers and taking over their schools.

“Whilst sometimes the practices we use may not seem the correct way to do things you must remember this is a ‘Jihad’ and as such all means possible to win the war is acceptable.”

Ofsted inspectors launched a surprise inspection this week at Park View Academy in Birmingham after complaints of discrimination against non-Muslim staff.

Meanwhile, the Birmingham Mail also reported that a fraud investigation has been reopened at a local primary school after allegations of ‘faked’ resignation letters. This school is also mentioned in the documents.

The documents also mention an alleged plot to oust the head teacher at another school by ‘planting the seed’ of allegations of cheating in SAT tests. The head teacher and her deputy both resigned last year after education chiefs rejected the school’s SAT results due to exactly those allegations.

Also mentioned are plans to roll out the ‘Trojan Horse’ scheme to other areas including Manchester and Bradford. In correspondence between one Islamist in Birmingham and another in Bradford, the Birmingham fundamentalist writes: “Operation ‘Trojan Horse’ has been very carefully thought through and is tried and tested within Birmingham, implementing it in Bradford will not be difficult for you.”

It states that ‘Trojan Horse’ is “totally invisible to the naked eye and allows us to operate under the radar. I have detailed the plan we have in Birmingham and how well it has worked and you will see how easy the whole process is to get the whole process is to get the head teacher out and our own person in.”

It also adds: “The poor performing schools are easy to disrupt, the better performing with strong head teachers is much harder and so we have to manufacture a strong enough reason, but rest assured we have not failed yet, no matter how difficult removing the head teacher may be. You just have to be clever and find the most appropriate way to deal with the school.”