Trojan Horse scandal

The Trojan Horse scandal, also known as "Operation Trojan Horse" or the Trojan Horse affair, is a conspiracy theory^[1][2] that posits a plot to introduce an "Islamist" or "Salafist" ethos into several schools in Birmingham, England.^[3][4][5] The name, based on the Greek legend, comes from an anonymous letter sent to Birmingham City Council in late 2013, alleged to be from Birmingham "Islamists" detailing how to wrest control of a school, and speculating about expanding the scheme to other cities. The letter was leaked to the press in March 2014. Around a month later, Birmingham City Council revealed that following the letter release it had received hundreds of allegations of plots similar to those described in the letter, some claims dating back over 20 years.^[6] The letter has been characterised as "incomplete, unsigned and unaddressed",^[7] but led to two investigations commissioned by the Department for Education and Birmingham City Council, the Clarke and Kershaw Reports, respectively.^[3][8] The reports did not both endorse the idea of "a plot", but point to "behaviour indicative of a concerted attempt to change schools".^[7]

Tahir Alam, former chairman of the Park View Educational Trust, which ran three schools in Birmingham, was alleged to have written a 72-page document for the Muslim Council of Britain in 2007 detailing a blueprint for the "Islamisation" of secular state schools, a claim that has been widely debunked.^[9][10] This document provided guidance about the religious needs and practices of Muslim parents and pupils that would facilitate their integration into schools. It was entitled Towards Greater Understanding: Meeting the Needs of Muslim Pupils in State Schools. Information and Guidance for Schools and is available as an appendix to the Kershaw Report.^[8] The introduction of the document states that the "purpose is to promote greater understanding of the faith, religious and cultural needs of Muslim pupils and how they can be accommodated within schools. It also provides useful information and guidance and features of good practice in meeting those needs."

The government's Department for Education initially responded to the scandal by banning Alam and 14 other teachers from the teaching profession for life in 2015. As of 2019, Alam remains^[when?] banned from any involvement with schools,^[11] while the bans against 14 other teachers were eventually overturned, dropped and/or dismissed in courts between 2016 and 2017.^[1][12] The allegations against the teachers were set out in the press and in the Kershaw and Clarke Reports. The teachers were barred from responding to the allegations due to confidentiality orders as part of their employment contracts that were binding also after the suspension. The first opportunity to put their case came when professional misconduct cases were brought against them by the National College of Teaching and Learning (an independent agency of the Department for Education, now replaced by the Teaching Regulation Agency) in October 2015 and May 2017, when the case against the senior teachers collapsed because of "serious improprieties" by the legal team acting for the NCTL.^[2]

In January 2022, The New York Times released The Trojan Horse Affair, an investigative podcast about the Trojan Horse scandal which characterized it as an "Islamophobic hoax" and compared it to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a historical antisemitic hoax. In the podcast, the link between the Trojan Horse letter and the Headteacher of Adderley Primary School in Birmingham, Rizwana Darr, is explored and it is alleged that Darr is the real author of the Trojan Horse letter.^[13][1] Khalid Mahmood, former Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, contested the podcast as "an act of irresponsibility" and defended Darr as a "successful head teacher".^[14]

In December 2022 a report from the conservative pressure group Policy Exchange challenged the findings of the New York Times podcast and suggested that various reports into the matter had uncovered real causes for concern.^[15] The report was prefaced with a foreword from Policy Exchange founder Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education at the time of the scandal, who called The New York Times journalists ‘useful idiots’.^[16]