Hizb ut-Tahrir Members Are London School Governors

Members of an Islamist group condemned by Tony Blair and David Cameron have been appointed to the governing bodies of schools in London. The Sunday Express reports that members of Hizb ut-Tahrir have been, or currently are, governors at two schools.

Although the group is non-violent, it campaigns for a worldwide Islamic state and has been branded “extremist”. Both Tony Blair and David Cameron have tried to ban it.

Mohammed Abdul Kuddus, who is described by the group as a senior member, has now been revealed to be a governor of Kobi Nazrul Primary School in Tower Hamlets.

The school has just been subject to an urgent inspection after achieving poor results in standardised government tests following a breakdown in relations between staff and governors.

Meanwhile, at Cleves Primary School in neighbouring Newham, Yusuf Patel served as governor from 2007 to 2011. He was also an activists in Huzb ut-Tahrir until 2010, and previously invited Tahir Alam, an alleged ring leader in the “Trojan Horse” plot, to speak at seminars. The plot involved an alleged attempt by hardline Muslims to take over the governing bodies of schools in Birmingham.

These seminars were held to encourage Muslim parents to become governors “with the aim of bringing real change through greater participation from the Muslim community in education”.

Mr Patel also wrote a pamphlet urging Muslim parents to become school governors so they could influence school policy on sex and relationship education (SRE). The booklet says that children must be taught that “relationships outside of marriage are completely forbidden”.

It even adds that under Sharia law, the punishment for breaking this is 100 lashes.

Mr Patel also gave a lecture in 2009 in which he said that “homosexuality is not an acceptable lifestyle choice.”

Yesterday, he denied trying to influence sex and relationship education while a governor at Cleves Primary School. He told the Sunday Express: “I never tried to change the character of the school. My former membership of Hizb ut-Tahrir was well known and I kept the two roles very ­separate.”

The Department for Education said: “Ofsted recently carried out an inspection at Kobi Nazrul school due to concerns about Sats test results. We await the results with interest.”