The “Trojan Horse” Plot and the Fear of Muslim Power in British State Schools

Abstract

In 2014, an alleged “Trojan Horse” plot to Islamise education in a number of schools attended predominantly by diverse Muslim pupils in the inner city wards of Birmingham raised considerable questions. Ofsted investigations of 21 schools explored these concerns at the behest of the then Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove MP. At the head of this so-called plot, a certain Tahir Alam, once a darling of New Labour’s policies on British Muslim schools, faced the brunt of the media and political furore. Based on a series of face-to-face interviews with Alam in 2015 and 2016, this paper provides a detailed insight into the allegations, the context in which they emerged and the implications raised for young Muslims in the education system. Ultimately, as part of the government’s counter-terrorism policy the accusations of the “Islamisation” of education in these “Trojan Horse” schools foreshadowed the additional securitisation of all sectors of education. However, there was neither the evidence nor the legal justification to ratchet up anti-extremism education measures that eventually followed; namely the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015. The consequences of the negative attention heightened existing Islamophobia but, paradoxically, they also limited the opportunities for de-radicalisation through education.

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Acknowledgements

This was an independently funded research project.

Notes

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Tahir Abbas

Tahir Abbas is a Senior Research Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, Visiting Senior Fellow, Department of Government, London School of Economics. Previously, he was a Professor of Sociology at Fatih University in Istanbul; Reader in Sociology at Birmingham University; and Senior Research Officer at the Home Office and Ministry of Justice in London. His research interests include ethnic relations, Islamophobia and radicalisation He has published several books and journal articles, chapters, encyclopaedic entries and reviews. He read Economics at Queen Mary University of London. He has an MSocSc in Economic Development & Policy, University of Birmingham and a PhD in Ethnic Relations, University of Warwick. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.