By Robin Millard
April 14, 2014 10:00 AM
The government sent in a former counter-terror chief to investigate claims of an Islamist plot to that over schools in Birmingham Frederic Florin/AFP/File
London (AFP) – Birmingham launched a probe Monday into an alleged hardline Muslim plot to take control of schools.
Concerns about how some of the 430 schools in the city were being run first emerged last year in a leaked anonymous letter which outlined how to implement what it called Operation Trojan Horse.
The letter, which credited the alleged plot with forcing a change of leadership at four schools, gave instructions on ousting and replacing uncooperative headteachers and school governors.
“We have an obligation to our children to fulfil our roles and ensure these schools are run on Islamic principles,” the letter says.
“We… are on our way to getting rid of more headteachers and taking over their schools.”
The letter continued: “You must remember this is a ‘jihad’ and as such all means possible to win the war is acceptable.”
Birmingham has a large Muslim population. Some 22 percent of the city’s residents identified themselves as such in the 2011 census.
Since the letter emerged, whistleblowers including former staff have come forward, making claims that boys and girls were segregated in classrooms and assemblies, sex education was banned and non-Muslim staff were bullied.
In one case, it was alleged that the teachings of the firebrand Al-Qaeda-linked Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki — who was killed by a US drone strike in Yemen in 2011 — were praised in an assembly.