‘Trojan Horse’ teacher loses dismissal appeal

THE DEPUTY head of a Birmingham school at the centre of the Trojan Horse row has lost his claim for unfair dismissal after being sacked for homophobic comments.

Razwan Faraz, who worked at multi-faith Nansen Primary School from 2012, was dismissed in February 2015, for gross misconduct after comments emerged on a WhatsApp group known as the Park View Brotherhood.

The Nansen school was one of several within the Park View Academy portfolio said to be involved in the Trojan Horse conspiracy: an alleged attempt to take over local schools and run them on strict Islamic principles.

In 2014, the school was placed in special measures for failing to safeguard pupils from extremism.

Mr Faraz’s employment tribunal was delayed because he and others faced hearings under the National College for Teaching and Leadership, their professional body, but those proceedings were eventually withdrawn.

The Birmingham tribunal was held earlier this year but the judgment has just been published.

In May 2013, Mr Faraz posted a link to a Guardian article on gay marriage. In it he told other members of the group: “These animals are going out full force. As teachers we must be aware and counter their satanic ways of influencing young people.”

In September of the same year, Mr Faraz again stirred controversy after commenting on a BBC news magazine article about a shrine in Karachi being used as a meeting place by gay men. He said: “May Allah further expose this and give us the strength to deal and eradicate it.”

At a disciplinary hearing and subsequent appeal, which he lost, he argued the comments were not homophobic but an expression of his faith.

He told the tribunal: “It was not intended in any way towards anyone from the LGBT community, but rather a comment on those seeking to encourage gay marriage – something that, at the time, I, like a majority of Muslims and many Christians at the time, was against.”

He said his views had since changed, adding: “The person I was two years ago isn’t who I am today.”

The disciplinary panel found the WhatsApp comments were “a significant factor in causing the school to be brought into disrepute” and the tribunal said it was right to conclude the postings were not a private matter.

Dismissing his claim of discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief, the tribunal stated: “This tribunal is satisfied that they were not an assertion of religious sentiments and had nothing to do with a profound religious or other belief in the moral equivalents of gay relationships. They were far more than that. They were homophobic and offensive remarks that were made in a WhatsApp group to people who he did not know.”

Following another Ofsted inspection in March 2016, Nansen Primary School was removed from special measures and rated as “good”.