Gove attacks New York Times’ Trojan Horse claims
Minister says claim that affair was not linked with Islamist extremism was ‘as dangerous as it is false’
MICHAEL GOVE has accused activists and The New York Times of trying to rewrite history by denying that the Trojan Horse affair was driven by Islamist extremists.
In a joint article with Nick Timothy, a former Home Office adviser, the Levelling Up Secretary said the claim that the Trojan Horse affair had nothing to do with Islamist extremism was “as dangerous as it is false”.
The pair warned such claims of “victimhood” concealed an “ugly truth” that Britain had a problem with Islamist extremists trying to impose their “intolerant” values on Muslim communities including children.
His comments follow a New York Times podcast earlier this year that claimed to tell the true story of how an alleged plot by hardline Islamists to take over state schools in Birmingham prompted a national inquiry.
The podcast journalists alleged no such plot existed and that the letter that led to the first investigation into the affair was a hoax.
However, in a foreword to a new report on the Trojan Horse affair by the think tank Policy Exchange, Mr Gove, then education secretary, and Mr Timothy, then an adviser to Theresa May and a Telegraph columnist, said the podcast was “replete with errors and omissions”.
The pair said it was part of a “concerted attempt to muddy the waters,” by claiming the affair was nothing to do with an Islamist takeover but limited to governance malpractice.
“The notion that the events in Birmingham had nothing to do with extremism is as dangerous as it is false, since it conceals an ugly truth that too many prefer not to acknowledge,” they said. This truth was that “we have a problem in Britain with Islamist ideology and its adherents, who seek to impose their intolerant values on Muslim communities, including children, through non-violent means including the capture of important institutions such as schools”, they added.
“The fear of being called ‘Islamophobic’ has only made it more difficult to speak up about such extremism. There is a well-organised campaign that seeks to undermine our counter-extremism work and the Government’s counterradicalisation strategy, Prevent.”
They said this was important because the Government is due to shortly publish its review of Prevent by William Shawcross, the former chair of the Charity Commission, which is expected to say Prevent has been too focused on Right-wing extremism and should now crack down on Islamist extremism.
‘The fear of being called “Islamophobic” has only made it more difficult to speak up about extremism’
“Many of the key players in this campaign – who will no doubt repeat their demands for the scrapping of Prevent regardless of how it is fine-tuned – are also involved in undermining the truth about Trojan Horse.
“The common thread to their campaigning is the allegation of statedriven ‘Islamophobia,’” they said.
“An important element of this campaign of grievance is the activists’ insistence on writing their own [truths].”
Jordan Cohen, executive director (communications) for The New York Times, said it stood by its report which was the culmination of years of investigation that pointed to potentially unethical and incompetent conduct on the part of state and local officials.