Unfairly Demonised?

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The Sunday Times reported on a string of unregulated Islamist schools which have been set up in parts of London, Birmingham and Luton including one which was being run by a convicted extremist, Mizanur Rahman, who has apparently claimed that Taliban gunmen responsible for murdering 132 children at a school in Pakistan were "unfairly demonised".

Now the security services clearly have their work cut out in keeping track of these people and what they get up to in local communities across the UK.

Yet at the same time, in a recent survey fro Sky News lots of British Muslims criticise the security services for allegedly helping to radicalise young Muslims which sounds like a whole load of tosh if you ask me.

Islamists set up ‘anti-UK’ schools 


By Richard Kerbaj and Sian Griffiths - The Sunday Times

Hussain: temporary order bans him from state schools

EDUCATION officials are investigating up to 50 unregulated schools set up by Islamists, including several established by a former teacher at the centre of the so-called Trojan Horse scandal.

The schools, some of which allegedly “subvert British values”, are based around the country, including Tower Hamlets in east London, Brent in northwest London, Birmingham and Luton. They avoid scrutiny because they operate outside the mainstream education system which is regulated by the Department for Education (DfE) and Ofsted, the schools’ watchdog.

Many of their pupils, including some from Somali, Bengali and Pakistani families, have been taken out of mainstream schools to be taught at home. Their education is supplemented in unregulated schools, where much of the teaching is around the Islamic faith. Officials fear children may be at risk of being radicalised in such tutorial centres.

One of the schools, Siddeeq Academy in Tower Hamlets, was shut in January after The Sunday Times revealed it was being run by Mizanur Rahman, a convicted Islamist extremist who has claimed Taliban gunmen who killed 132 children at a Pakistan school were “unfairly demonised”.

A Whitehall official said the DfE had launched a series of investigations into the growing number of unregulated schools amid concern about the numbers of children travelling to Syria to join jihadists.

The official said some of the unregulated schools are run by people who are opposed to “democracy, equality, and tolerance” because they are seen to conflict with their religious beliefs.

“If you are a Salafi Muslim or an Islamist, that means you don’t believe in British values because they go against your ideologies and set of beliefs. The problem is anyone can set up one of these schools and there are no regulations for it and they can then go on to brainwash children,” said the official.

Concerns among DfE and counter-terrorism officials about the ease with which such schools are set up follow a failure to act on a proposal by Michael Gove, the former education secretary, to force all schools, including private and hitherto unregulated schools, to teach British values.

Last month, Theresa May, the home secretary, promised that if the Conservatives were elected, they would act swiftly to review unregulated centres that gave grounds for alarm.

Unregulated schools are set up as privately funded tuition centres to provide supplementary education. By teaching for only a limited number of hours each day, they avoid being scrutinised by the DfE and Ofsted and attract the attentions of local councils only if they are in breach of safeguarding pupils.

Monzoor Hussain, the former acting principal at Park View Academy in Birmingham, who was at the centre of the so-called Trojan Horse affair, last year helped set up Aim-High Private Tuition and Education Centre, which runs three unregulated schools in Wolverhampton, Stoke and Birmingham.

Hussain has been served with a temporary order banning him from working in state schools, pending a hearing by the National College for Teaching and Leadership into his activities at Park View. He is not prevented from operating private and unregulated tutorial centres such as Aim-High. Hussain, who faces serious allegations of misconduct over his alleged role in efforts to take over and influence state schools in Birmingham, did not respond to requests for comment.

It is understood that one of the unregulated schools being investigated is City Educators Ltd in northwest London. It could not be contacted for comment.

Ofsted said the subject of unregulated schools was a matter for the DfE, which declined to comment.

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