Muslims from across Bradford attended a meeting last night to discuss what impact Birmingham’s Trojan horse investigation has had on them as a religious community.
Concerns were raised by members of the Muslim Women’s Council after schools in Bradford were investigated for allegedly promoting extremist thinking which resulted in two school governor’s boards being removed by the city council.
Bradford has a well-established Muslim community.
Those at the Midland Hotel event did not feel an adequate explanation was given when the governing boards were removed and perceived this to be a witch hunt against the Muslim community.
Chief Executive, Bana Gora, said, however, that the main concern people had was how children in Bradford were learning about Islam and felt they were looking the faith in a biased way.
She said: “If we look at the syllabus, there are big question marks there. I think there is quite a bias as to what children learn in school.
“We don’t feel that the RE syllabus is holistic and is being looked at with parity and I think that is what is needed.”
But Mrs Gora did feel that children across the UK were at risk of being exposed to extremist ideas and said that education had a role to play in preventing it from happening.
She said: “I think it’s about ensuring that there are balanced discussions taking place in school classrooms, homes and the mosques that children attend as well as the parenting model.”
Ofsted were invited to attend the discussion, but have offered to meet the Muslim Women’s Council at a later date.
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