Thread by @luminatus1

It was a public inquisition of an alleged Muslim fifth column within our schools and public spaces that needed to be subdued, contained, and made a cautionary example
of

discoversociety.org/2022/06/27/sec…

This is a theme which has endured and sharpened over time. Yet we can note that an irony of the British political class which promotes the impression that it doesn’t ‘do God’, is that actually, it does.

We reassure ourselves that ours is not a militant secularism (as in France)

militant secularism (as in France), and that neither are we overbearing or bombastic about it (as we perceive to be the case in US public life).

Yet to think that the secularism of our public and political life is a guarantor of fairness or neutrality, is to ignore the

Yet to think that the secularism of our public and political life is a guarantor of fairness or neutrality, is to ignore the foundational connection that the very notion of secularism has with justifying white supremacy.

Can we understand secularism, or indeed, European notions of ‘religion’, without considering their role in justifying European colonisation as a civilising mission, and how western Christianity was promoted as a superior worldview to the regressive ‘backwardness’ of the east?

How does this inextricable connection bear out in the ways that civically active Muslims are received and their aspirations and arguments engaged with?

The Trojan Horse Affair (THA) presents us with an instructive and compelling case study affirming the longstanding reality of how the options and possibilities for Muslim civic activism are subject to exceptional preconditions –

the options and possibilities for Muslim civic activism are subject to exceptional preconditions – and that any departure from these constraints carries the threat of punishment in the form debilitating public humiliation and/or sanction.

Let us take for an example a key argument presented by barrister acting for the govt in the legal cases against teachers implicated in the affair, namely that they were going “too far in inculcating their own vision of the cultural identity they wish these children to have.”

namely that they were going “too far in inculcating their own vision of the cultural identity they wish these children to have.” (Trojan Horse Affair podcast, part 6)
This charge is built on an inaccurate and unaddressed assumption that state schools in England and Wales

This charge is built on an inaccurate & unaddressed assumption that state schools in England &. Wales are supposed to be neutral spaces when it comes to religion @ culture, & that these teachers were contravening this neutrality by promoting too much (Muslim) religion and culture

state schools in England & Wales are supposed 2be neutral spaces when it comes to religion & culture, & that these teachers were contravening this neutrality by promoting too much (Muslim) religion & culture.

The assertion that these were ‘secular’ state schools was repeated

The assertion that these were ‘secular’ state schools was repeated throughout the Clarke report, & was most recently reiterated by Nick Timothy, who in the wake of the affair was successively Downing Street’s Chief of Staff & then a columnist at the Telegraph, & asserted that

then a columnist at the Telegraph, & asserted that these were ‘secular state schools’.
But there is a glaring disingenuousness in this portrayal. Aside from the obvious complication that no critically honest observer of any curriculum or educational environment would concede its

no critically honest observer of any curriculum or educational environment would concede its neutrality, we are left again with the question of what this highly prized value of secularism actually looks like. Since we are not like France or the US, t

Since we are not like France or the US, there are no hard-and-fast rules about ‘secularism’ in non-denominational state-funded schools, schools like those in Birmingham’s Alum Rock, tht were caught up in the THA. There is, however guidance about the nature of mandatory collective

There is, however guidance abt the nature of mandatory collective worship at such schools. Ths provision 4 regular worship stipulates that it should be ‘wholly or mainly Christian in nature’, unless individual schools are granted the ‘determination’ to depart frm this arrangement

Unsurprisingly, considering the overwhelmingly Muslim local populations that they serve, the schools implicated in the THA had sought and received such a determination.
Park View had a ‘determination’ in place since 1997 & Islamic assemblies had long been an established element

Park View had a ‘determination’ in place since 1997 and Islamic assemblies had long been an established element, receiving high praise in inspection reports of 2007 and 2012 (see Holmwood and O’Toole, 2018),  Deemed by recent Ofsted inspections to be highly successful,

Park View & other schools’ converted to academy status that afforded them a greater degree of autonomy in curriculum & governance.

School leaderships understood that their approach of validating & celebrating their pupils’ faith & culture was a legally uncontroversial way of

School leaderships understood that their approach of validating & celebrating their pupils’ faith & culture was a legally uncontroversial way of building a safe, nurturing & motivational environment.

Parkview epicentre school of #TrojanHorseAffair
#EducateAndCelebrate

Parkview epicentre school #TrojanHorseAffair is renamed Rockwood Academy
#EducateAndCelebrate

Showcasing #Integration in 2016 by now defunct but then worlds 1st Counter Terrorism org, Quilliam’s Chairman
2019 Reborn headline

No evidence of a plot, radicalisation, extremism

2019 Reborn headline

No evidence of a plot, radicalisation, extremism
One isolated incident was Panorama video shown in classroom at request of West Midlands Police (part of Prevent)

Vulnerable to extremism & Birmingham CC took radical steps, Educate & Celebrate = antidote

https://twitter.com/luminatus1/status/1585256664407547904