Changing Horses

"We have to accept and the schools with a majority of Muslim parents have to accept -- as they do if they are Hindu, Sikh, Jewish or Christian -- that we also live within the United Kingdom."
"Alongside values that are religiously based there has to be a clear understanding that this is the U.K., and there are a set of values, that are indeed Christian based, which permeate our sense of citizenship."
Jack Straw, former Labour Cabinet minister

"My daughter tried to bring in an Easter egg for a friend and one boy grabbed it and smashed it against a wall."
"Another girl of about 11 brought in a little Easter bunny toy that she wanted to show her friends. They grabbed that off her too. All talk of Christmas and other non-Muslim festivals is banned. The teachers just turn a blind eye to it."
"Older boys are going around in these morality squads telling off girls if they do not wear veils."
Mother of student -- fearful of reprisals, unnamed

 "Wider, more comprehensive action is needed. These allegations need either to be substantiated and firm action taken, or to be shown to be baseless."
Peter Clarke, former head of Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command

"If you bring someone in badged counter-terrorism then the interpretation of the situation is pretty obvious. The big Muslim community out there in Birmingham are going to feel a little uneasy that the person that Michael Gove has brought in is a counter-terrorist expert and not from an education background."
Albert Bore, chairman, local city council, Birmingham

Precisely, claims Tahir Alam, hardline Muslim Council of Britain activist. Himself accused of representing the "Trojan Horse" plot's ringleader, denying any role in the attempted and ongoing Islamicization of Britain, diminishing its culture, the celebration of its Christian heritage, the insistence of its universal law, he characterizes the investigation as a "witch-hunt", and the reasons for it, a "fabrication".

Birmingham City Council has stated confirmation that it was in the process of investigating 25 schools and a former school principal, Ian Kershaw, has been appointed to the investigation as the Council's chief advisor. Children who brought Easter eggs to class had the misfortune of having them 'confiscated' by "Muslim morality squads" patrolling Birmingham schools, according to press stories of events they followed up distressing to the children.

One of the students spoke of her experience to her mother, and her mother spoke to the Daily Express, informing the paper that groups of older students had been forcefully claiming the eggs in the hands of younger children, while teachers simply ignored the situation. Six schools in Birmingham have been implicated in what has been named as a "Trojan Horse" schemed by extremist Muslims to "Islamize" secular state eduction.

No mere conjecture this, the scheme has been replete with the illegal segregation of students according to gender, and discrimination being practised against non-Muslims, now in the minority status in their country of birth where an immigrant Muslim population has become numerous enough that some among them feel confident enough in those numbers to claim exceptionalism from the norm and to instill fear and caution among non-Muslims for fear of violent retribution.

A local Labour MP, Khalid Mahmood, explained that a small group of individuals was busy attempting to alter the ethos of schools by stealth. And in some instances, not so stealthy at all. The West Midlands Police has been brought in to begin the criminal investigation of a situation that began several months earlier. Michael Wilshaw, chief of the Office for Standards in Education is heading an inquiry to report to the Education Secretary, Michael Gove.

And it is Mr. Gove's appointment of Peter Clarke, formerly head of Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command to investigate intimidation claims that has raised a furore, with the chief constable of West Midlands Police describing the appointment as "desperately unfortunate". A decision, he claims, that would "inevitably draw  unwarranted conclusions from his former role as national co-ordinator for counter terrorism."

Seen, however, to be warranted.