Clarke manifestly did — citing a teacher leading prayers giving a sermon during which he said that Christians and Jews were ignorant; a three-year-old in nursery saying his family was poor because “all the Jews and Zionists have all the money”; a ten-year-old aghast when his friend drew some stars by overlapping two triangles saying, “You can’t draw that! It’s haram [sinful] because it’s Israel.”
An ex-teacher has subsequently told a disciplinary hearing into the conduct of some of the teachers identified by Clarke that she “heard both pupils and staff use anti-Semitic language. Pupils would say to staff or other pupils ‘you Jew boy’, which was considered a derogatory term . . . racist and homophobic comments were an ongoing problem” at the school and there was “an increase in anti-Semitic graffiti in pupils’ books . . . Our pupils were being fed entirely inappropriate and biased information, which was in particular anti-Semitic.”
Clarke’s inquiry into Trojan Horse also heard evidence that Birmingham Council’s response to allegations that extremists were trying to take over schools was not to intervene for fear of damaging community cohesion. And who was the council official in charge of community cohesion? It was Mashuq Ally — who doesn’t accept that what Clarke found was evidence of extremism but who also chairs the Channel Panel that decides if someone needs to be disabused of extremist ideas.
I don’t doubt for a minute that Messrs Ally, Qadir and Ahmed would draw the line at comments like “Jew boy” or would not recognise anti-Semitic graffiti for what it was. I just wonder if they have ever considered that this stems from the cacophony of disgust now directed at Israel that owes more to fashion than facts. There may be much that is wrong with Israel — it would be a miracle if there was not, given the vicissitudes of a rapidly changing demography and the complete breakdown of trust in the Palestinian leadership. But there is much that is good and right as well — and too rarely mentioned.
For years we were assured that a new dawn would break over the Middle East if only Israel-Palestine could be resolved. Yet the satanic thunderclouds that now darken the region have rolled in all on their own.
Racism towards Jewish people has never quite had the stigma attached to other ethnic groups, a double standard that has grown as criticism of Israel has morphed into demonisation. Only when all practitioners of Prevent understand that, will they also understand that addressing it is part and parcel of what the Prime Minister says has become the defining battle of this century.
An ex-teacher has subsequently told a disciplinary hearing into the conduct of some of the teachers identified by Clarke that she “heard both pupils and staff use anti-Semitic language. Pupils would say to staff or other pupils ‘you Jew boy’, which was considered a derogatory term . . . racist and homophobic comments were an ongoing problem” at the school and there was “an increase in anti-Semitic graffiti in pupils’ books . . . Our pupils were being fed entirely inappropriate and biased information, which was in particular anti-Semitic.”
Clarke’s inquiry into Trojan Horse also heard evidence that Birmingham Council’s response to allegations that extremists were trying to take over schools was not to intervene for fear of damaging community cohesion. And who was the council official in charge of community cohesion? It was Mashuq Ally — who doesn’t accept that what Clarke found was evidence of extremism but who also chairs the Channel Panel that decides if someone needs to be disabused of extremist ideas.
I don’t doubt for a minute that Messrs Ally, Qadir and Ahmed would draw the line at comments like “Jew boy” or would not recognise anti-Semitic graffiti for what it was. I just wonder if they have ever considered that this stems from the cacophony of disgust now directed at Israel that owes more to fashion than facts. There may be much that is wrong with Israel — it would be a miracle if there was not, given the vicissitudes of a rapidly changing demography and the complete breakdown of trust in the Palestinian leadership. But there is much that is good and right as well — and too rarely mentioned.
For years we were assured that a new dawn would break over the Middle East if only Israel-Palestine could be resolved. Yet the satanic thunderclouds that now darken the region have rolled in all on their own.
Racism towards Jewish people has never quite had the stigma attached to other ethnic groups, a double standard that has grown as criticism of Israel has morphed into demonisation. Only when all practitioners of Prevent understand that, will they also understand that addressing it is part and parcel of what the Prime Minister says has become the defining battle of this century.


















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