[00:15:48] Tahir Alam was a well-respected school governor in Birmingham known for turning around poorly-performing schools. Get immediate access to a more interesting way of improving your English, Subtitles will start when you press 'play'. [00:08:03] Why was there no date, for example? Like, what the hell is this? [00:04:53] Operation Trojan Horse was, according to the British media at least, a huge conspiracy., [00:05:00] But it was the job of the government to find out whether this was really true.. Or does it not matter? It was accompanied by a note from an anonymous person claiming the letter had been found in their bosss office, the paper added. He was the Secretary for Education at the time, essentially the Minister for Education, the top official in the country responsible for education and schools. The choice of Clarke was branded desperately unfortunate by West Midlands Police Chief Constable Chris Sims, according to the BBC. And so it raises the question - even if you were able to find and speak the truth, does anybody care enough to listen? [00:00:20] I'm Alastair Budge, and today its part-two of our mini-series on the Trojan Horse scandal, the alleged Islamic plot to infiltrate British schools and radicalise students from within. The left is particularly skillful at using Trojan horse phrases to slip destructive ideas past rational objections. Transcript In 2014, an anonymous whistleblower leaked a copy of a letter that allegedly revealed an Islamist plan to take over schools in one English city. Interested in reactions : r/TheTrojanHorseAffair - Reddit [00:15:43] An anti-British ISIS recruiter? [00:14:47] Their theory, and I must say that there is some evidence for this, is that the letter was written and sent by a headteacher from another Birmingham school. [00:06:33] Millions came, especially from places like India, Pakistan, and the West Indies, the Caribbean. Solve the mystery of the letter writer, and perhaps, you'll be able to rectify the effects of the letter once and for all - or at least that's the hope. (modern). [00:13:02] This 2022 series, which was produced jointly between media powerhouses Serial and the New York Times, is a seriously in-depth investigation which tries to figure out exactly what happened and, crucially, who wrote the mystery letter. It's a very unusual line of questioning why torture. In Birmingham, a city with a sizeable immigrant Muslim population, the Trojan horse affair ruined careers and thrust vulnerable communities deeper into the void. [00:20:37] In particular, Islam and the place of Muslims in British society became a talking point. Podcast Dept. [00:03:06] The letter, which appeared to be part of a correspondence between two people, or two groups perhaps, claimed that there was a conspiracy, a plot, to gain control of British schools and implement hardline Islamic teachings. It's a tricky scene, one that underlines how the story's stakes are different for Syed as a British Muslim and Reed as a white American. [00:04:11] One of the schools at the centre of the controversy, Park View, went from being rated as outstanding to the lowest possible rating despite being the first school in the country to be scored outstanding under new criteria just two years before. How is anyone expected to bring their fragility and their concerns to the public sphere when it is interested in only one thing: how to use these accounts to advance an anti-Muslim agenda? In 2014,Michael Gove, who at the time was education secretary in David Camerons government, ordered an inquiry and appointed a former national counter-terrorism chief, Peter Clarke, to look into the allegations. Schools revamped teaches lost their jobs. Chris S Friel I pay attention to the text of the 2013 Birmingham Trojan Horse letter, on the face of it a covert plan by radical Islamists to take over schools in Birmingham by intimidatory methods, but widely regarded as a fake. Gives Samuel and his brother Daniel with wife Anne and 4 children. Many blamed the rapid fall of France not on military factors, but on the weakness and panic created by a suspected Nazi "Fifth Column" that undermined French resistance. 52 ideas that changed the world - 51. they say it's a good thing Podcast critic Nick Quah says it's Serial's best show since "S-Town." Education secretary Michael Gove arrives at Downing Street in June 2014 to discuss the allegations with the then prime minister, David Cameron. We'll talk with her biographer, Tomiko Brown-Nagin, author of "Civil Rights Queen." The mortgage crunch: what happens if you fall behind on your home loan? The podcast spent years following the Trojan horse plot and revealed that the governments response to the letter which included the suspensions of scores of teachers, an inquiry and changes to education and counter-terror policy happened after the then education secretary, Michael Gove, who spearheaded the Trojan horse response, had apparently been warned that the letter was fake, a letter that he went on to quote from and cite as evidence of a grave threat to Britains schools. Birmingham does not get national attention, it was a circus. How a doctor-turned-journalist worked with a veteran audio reporter to create a podcast about a mysterious letter that riveted Britain. [00:12:45] Now, this Trojan Horse Scandal was big news at the time in the UK, as you've heard, but it wouldnt be until almost a decade later, when it gained a global audience, with the release of a podcast series about it called The Trojan Horse Affair. [00:08:18] In fact, it's even thought that Michael Gove was warned by members of Birmingham City Council about their doubts surrounding the authenticity of the mystery letter, but he ordered the investigation nonetheless. It should be a reliable, impartial arbiter. [00:21:23] Ok then, that is it for part one of this mini-series on the Trojan Horse affair, the alleged Islamic plot to infiltrate British schools. [00:10:44] Firstly, and despite all the investigations finding no evidence of a plot, Operation Trojan Horse has since been used as justification to beef up, or increase, Britains counter-extremism agenda. Essentially, they were doing very badly and needed urgent attention. If you were to poll a few hundred people, I wonder what they could tell you about the Operation Trojan Horse conspiracy story of 2014. [00:16:12] He had even been invited to Downing Street to celebrate his transformative educational policies with the Prime Minister, Tony Blair. [00:14:24] Was it some anti-Islamic teacher or member of the public? [00:08:24] In the UK, the government provides free education. [00:17:58] The school went from being one of the worst in the country to one of the best, and went from a 5% to a 70% pass rate in key exams., [00:18:09] When the British school inspection body, OFSTED, visited the school it concluded that every school in the country should be like this., [00:18:20] In fact, Park View was even complimented for its wide range of opportunities for spiritual development, including voluntary Friday prayers.. Raising concerns about your own Muslim community is a traumatising and difficult task; doing it in an atmosphere of Islamophobia makes it doubly fraught, because amid that toxicity, two impulses compete the wish to prove Muslims are up to no good, and the equal and opposite desire to defend Muslims comprehensively because they are always assumed by critics to be up to no good. [00:16:33] When Tahir Alam became governor of the school, he set about implementing a new educational policy. This is FRESH AIR. I see my work here check out the trailer you can hear how it all started. [00:14:08] Especially the right-wing media outlets delighted in stories of rumours of Jihadi plots and Islamists brainwashing British children, with journalists flocking to the area to try to interview local residents and students. None has been moved to humility. [00:08:11] And why, many people asked, did the letter seem like a caricature of Islamist extremism? One such example, the paper said, was that the document appears to show that the conspirators were working to remove a primary school headmistress who was actually dismissed 20 years ago. A Soviet historian of antiquity Nikolay Kazansky[ru; fr] found them much similar to Linear B signs,[1] while another Soviet historian, Arkady Molchanov[ru], regarded them as "imitation of writing". The podcast is essentially about a state and media captured by prejudice, either unconsciously or knowingly, but it is tangentially about many other things. It is a good listen, although some of the accents are quite tricky to understand. His name was Homs assignment was, and you wanted held on his first ever story about a mystery in Birmingham, his home town, but no one had ever solved. [00:13:44] Now, this podcasts main concern isnt about the rights and wrongs of the schools, its main objective is figuring out who wrote the Trojan Horse letter. What We Know, And What You Can Do To Help. [00:01:09] The story is long, and so full of twists and turns, that we are going to split it into two parts.. [00:03:25] In fact, it was more serious than that. Each of these is a strand that, when joined with others, tells a story about a country in which the truth can be so easily buried through the fumblings and machinations of a whole cast of protagonists. 761: The Trojan Horse Affair - This American Life [00:17:18] He implemented changes in the school, such as introducing a daily act of Islamic worship, and shortening the school day during Ramadan. [00:21:04] You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English. [00:01:52] Picking up where we left off, by mid-2014, with Britains newspapers stuffed full of scandalous stories about the plot, people demanded answers, and there were several official investigations into what had been dubbed Operation Trojan Horse. The Making of 'The Trojan Horse Affair' - The New York Times 11 Reasons That Listening to Podcasts with Transcripts (and Subtitles) Will Help You Improve Your English, The Ultimate Guide To Improving Your English Listening: A Step-by-Step Guide + 9 Listening Activities. [00:20:06] And this letter, if true, suggested that it had implanted itself within British schools. And it should go without saying that the state should not be involved in that conflation, justifying the muddying of those categories for its own ends. He would have wanted to protect her. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: It's unsigned, undated. The things that motivate me to do a story are 'cause it's a good-ass story, and I want to tell a good story. This highlights the fact that it is virtually impossible to go about setting the record straight when it comes to false stories about Muslims without running into the charge that in that process one is minimising real stories about Muslims. [00:02:43] In Birmingham, which was the focus of the investigations, OFSTED investigated more than 20 schools they suspected could have been vulnerable to radical Islam. The Times said that the letter contains errors that suggest it is a fake. How To Create Your Own English Immersion Course, How To Use Podcasts Like A Boss To Learn English, Why You Should Use Podcasts To Learn English. Some are well meaning, but among them are credulous bureaucrats, jobsworth civil servants, motivated ideologues and a few useful idiots. From Serial Productions and The New York Times, The Trojan Horse Affair, an investigation that became bigger than we ever imagined. Isn't a task force. I wonder how many would know one basic fact: that the furore originated from a single letter that was found, early on, to be bogus. 11 Reasons That Listening to Podcasts with Transcripts (and Subtitles) Will Help You Improve Your English, The Ultimate Guide To Improving Your English Listening: A Step-by-Step Guide + 9 Listening Activities. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Instead they point to different smoke, more fires, other concerns that were raised by whistleblowers about worrying practices in some schools. It's been fun, but also it's really changed the way. In short, it is about structural racism a bland, blame-diffusing term that comes to life during the podcast. Tahir Alam Adderley School Razwan Faraz Rizvana Darr TAs The Trojan Horse Letter. The letter was bizarre. Lab attracted students, faculty and other researchers including such already become masters of the Adobe Design Collection, frequently flavoured with. [00:22:14] You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English. The Trojan Horse Affair Introduction Listen More from Serial Illustration by Lucy Jones A strange letter appears on a city councilor's desk in Birmingham, England, laying out an elaborate. I hope you can join us. The letter purported to outline a five-stage strategy named Operation Trojan Horse, claiming that it had already achieved success and was responsible for leadership changes at four schools, the BBC reported at the time. The events once again under review are historical, but its a mistake to believe they are behind us, for the atmosphere in which the Trojan horse conspiracy thrived and flourished, is much the same today. Michael Gove was education secretary at the time of the scandal, Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing via Getty Images. Thank you. This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. The Trojan Horse Affair - Trailer | S-Town Transcripts | Podgist In the dead of night the Greeks jumped out, attacked the Trojans, and this resulted in the fall of Troy, the destruction of the city. The Trojan Horse scandal centred on an anonymous letter leaked to the media in 2014 that allegedly detailed a step-by-step "Muslim plot" to take over schools in the UK and impose an extreme. [1] Their status is disputed. Shocking and, quite frankly, in reading, discoveries are really hope. [00:12:27] It didnt really matter if no evidence of a wider plot was found, the idea of Islamic extremism in British schools just felt right for certain people, and the schools needed to be rebranded and injected with some so-called British values. Accuracy is not guaranteed. [00:08:20] So, first, some background to this. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Mark and Rizwana were close, both professionally and personally. [00:20:38] What do you think about this entire affair? The latter is an impulse to which I constantly have to be alert: the fear that admitting some allegations might be true effectively means conceding in the eyes of a hostile world to all the false ones as well.