I knew that we were recording always, and I knew that I was saying things that may or may not be used on the podcast, but it wasnt something I was fully internalizingthat Ill be occupying this weird space in the storyuntil we came to write it, and even then, I reluctantly came to accept it because when we were structuring the story, there wasnt a plan at the beginning for it to be a piece that had all these moments between Brian and I as part of the podcast. A Birmingham native who happens to be Muslim, Syed is intimately familiar with the scandal, and his burning interest in uncovering the remaining unknowns of the Trojan horse affair is the catalyzing event for the series. At the same school, speakers with extremist views were invited to address assemblies. For example, Baldwin (1985) argued that white America could not accept the veracity of the grievances from Black America related to slavery because it would implicate it in racial oppression and destroy its image of itself. 1998 1st National Road Race Championships 1st Stage 5 Tour de Beauce 1999 1st Tour What was it like to work with Brian Reed on this project? The shows hosts breathe new life into this story by simply asking the question that so many before them failed to interrogate, at least in public: Who wrote the damn letter? But a strategic ignorance about the authenticity of the letter had to be cultivated that would allow the government to act as if the letter was indeed evidence of a real plot in order to preserve its image as an ethical actor working for the wellbeing of all in the face of a national threat. I think that was one of the resignation letters. When that letter came out, I felt that there was nothing for me to hide anymore. He seems to be making things worse for himself. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. I was telling Brian the other day, Im waiting for the opportunity to step away from this long enough to internalize whats happeningcome to terms with the story, the reporting process, having the story out there. Services; Expertise; Our Clients; Book Deep Cleaning . The overarching aim of the new powers in the Counter-Extremism strategy were to set in motion a counter-entryism operation across the public sector to hunt down other dangerous Muslims that might be planning or executing Trojan Horse style operations. Part two is the story of what was subsequently uncovered by several Ofsted reports, an Education Funding Agency review, two separate inquiries by the Department for Education and Birmingham council, and multiple court judgments. They question Richy Thompson, a director, on how Humanists UK verified the whistleblower accounts before publishing them on its website. I honestly am just still living it. And thats kind of where we were pulling at each other, and I think, at a certain point, he understood where this was all coming from and why I felt we had to take it that far. The widely known nature of the letter (fraudulent) was made into an unknown to clear the way for new counterterrorism legislation and policy (Zulaika, 2012). Trojan Horse. Ive Never Been Happier Streaming. mark walters trojan horse. You make this trip to Perth, and then it just ends with you and Brian in the car with nothing. The strategic ignorance surrounding this alleged plot enabled much of the counterterrorism infrastructure that came after it. My guess is that he thought he had seen Mrs. Darr receiving the letters, or was told that he had seen her receive them, and so when she asked for a letter verifying him as a witness he thought it was okay / probably true to write that. Reed secured an interview with two whistleblowers independently assessed as credible and fair. Yeah, I also want to reiterate how weird it is to observe this. Powerful men and institutions are adept at throwing around accusations of racism or anti-faith bigotry to undermine the credibility of people speaking up about child protection: see the treatment of those who tried to flag child sexual abuse in the Catholic church, or the Rotherham inquirys finding that nervousness about cultural sensitivities impeded the exposure of child sexual abuse by predominantly Asian grooming gangs.
But the experience takes on a richer dimension when the series reveals itself to also be about the different ways of looking at the role of journalism in the world. Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. WebPanton, M. and Walters, G. (2019) Tottenhams Trojan Horse? The kindest interpretation here is that Syed and Reed are reporting a story about child protection without knowing the first thing about it. This is FRESH AIR. But later when the Trojan Horse letter came out and everything became a bigger story he could finally see Mrs. Darrs true character and her part in things and chose to leave the country for a fresh start. WebABSTRACT Austerity was the driving principle behind the UK Coalition Government Comprehensive Spending Review in October 2010, with local government facing a disproportionately high share of the spending cuts. Given that the letter emerged in the context of a war on terror in which there were already pre-existing narratives about the threat of Muslims to the west, this wasnt difficult, and they provided the main frame of reference to make sense of the letter. He is board certified in veterinary emergency and critical care. Do you think the fact that the press didnt dig deeper in trying to discover the author of the letter is a consequence of that same Islamophobia? Imprint Routledge. A year later in 2015, the government introduced a counter-extremism strategy which, on the back of the Trojan Horse Affair, created the Extremism Analysis Unit at the Home Office to monitor and compile blacklists of extremist individuals and organisations. And that, for me, gave me more confidence. laura soltis measurements; lee sharpe ex wife; nick nolte does he have parkinson's disease; morning sun obituaries pittsburg kansas; 27 dresses rosecliff mansion scene The silencing of Asian women trying to call out the sexism of certain Asian men is a common theme that comes up when I write about these issues. Im still so new to it that now Im experiencing for the first time putting a story out and having the world interact with it. People dont care. An interview with a couple who lodged complaints against their school starts out cordially, but six hours later, the atmosphere is so tense that not even an offer of tea can smooth things over. Rather, it feels like a working through of the tensions between different journalistic norms. Share. Im not sure. Webclickjacking (user-interface or UI redressing and IFRAME overlay): Clickjacking (also known as user-interface or UI redressing and IFRAME overlay ) is an exploit in which malicious coding is hidden beneath apparently legitimate buttons or other clickable content on a Im all for understanding where we fell short. A strange letter appears on a city councilors desk in Birmingham, England, laying out an elaborate plot by Islamic extremists to infiltrate the citys schools. They are both very ambitious characters that obviously would step on anyone that happened to be in their way. Copyright Ayaan Centre 2023. The Trojan War and the Horse That Left its Mark. Though the letter reads clearly like racist fanfiction, it spurred a period of madness in 2014 England, as journalists and politicians treated it as legitimate, scaremongering about the jihadis next door and deploying Prevent, a counterterrorism measure that deputized citizens to alert police to suspicious activity. So, what spurred someone to store Bibba delivering those envelopes? You only move countries if you're so afraid of being caught. So I was excited to tune into its new offering with the New York Times, The Trojan Horse Affair, an eight-part series that promises to tell the real story of the anonymous letter sent to Birmingham city council in 2013, that alleged a plot to take over and run local state schools according to strict Islamist principles. Then one rainy Friday afternoon, Brian hears back from a government source who wants to meet right away. One of the Countrys Bestselling Authors Says the NYT Bestseller List Is Rigged. Especially when you consider Darr, or whoever, wrote the letter likely never expecting such a reaction. But youre still answering questions and youre still having to speak to evidence and facts. Mr. Thompson said he talked to two or three other people who alleged instances of gender discrimination and homophobia at the school; it is not the case that he wouldnt tell us how many, or what they said. I thought that scene also brought some context into this whole thing about there being calls to prayer at the school, and kids praying and that. Is He Right? The divisive scandal thrust the city under the national spotlight in 2014 after a fake letter claimed there was a plot to Islamise schools, resulting in a crackdown on a number of teachers. I'm not saying Rizwana wasn't involved in some way but it makes more sense to me that Mark authored and posted the letter. 33,920 listeners The Coming Storm. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. It might be. Syed and his American co-presenter Brian Reed also try to discredit the findings about what went on in the schools Alam was responsible for, including the misogyny and homophobia they tellingly lump into a grab bag of Islam-adjacent allegations. Now once he turned up, I did realize that the biggest difference between he and I is where we were looking to take this story. HAMZA SYED: This is my first story as a journalist. And when that moment happened, when we were in Perth, I remember being in the car and just realizing that this is it. I do know that I want to continue telling stories, but I dont know what Ill call myself as I do that work, and I dont know where Ill be publishing them. The issue is not just how Muslims are treated by other people, but how Muslim women and girls are being treated by men in their own community, Gohir told me. He practices in Southern California at Dedicated But what I dont think is fair is not recognizing that the podcast is trying to make the point that all those issues, as important as they are, require good-faith engagement. 2023 Lets take it out. The school probably removed him to protect him from people with the same idea as you. First Published 2019. DAVIES: FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our job is to interrogate it. I dont know whats next for me.
Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. I feel about that trip as I did at that time. Samira Shackle, a freelance journalist who investigated the scandal in 2017, said there were potentially two sides to the subject being re-opened. The Trojan Horse Affair presents a one-sided account that minimises child protection concerns, misogyny and homophobia in order to exonerate the podcasts hero, a man called Tahir Alam. Your email address will not be published. Being accused of stoking up Islamophobia is the price I pay for raising concerns about child safeguarding and misogyny.. But thats OK. Why not just release the podcast one episode at a time? Mark knew the Adderley case Its very hard to make systemic Islamophobia the theme of the story, because immediately people will go either Im not interested because I have a feeling about Muslims anyway or, secondly, Its coming from a Muslim reporter, so I already know what this story is going to be and what this person is likely to say to that. So for me, its that we are looking into this fake letter that ended up changing our laws in Britain. And they learn about an internal investigation report that local officials have kept hidden, but which they think could contain a bombshell. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more The way the letter is written it is like an outsider's perspective on how Muslims would communicate or talk. I just want to explain what happened in Birmingham in 2014. You feel the excitement of excavating a new document, a new lead, a new name. I think something is said to the effect that he was her pet. Home Deep Cleaning Standard; Home Deep Cleaning Premium; Home Deep Cleaning Supreme The document would later be widely regarded as fake, but that didn't stop a nationwide panic over Islamic extremism infiltrating schools and beyond. And our two reporters have a confrontation with each other. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Amy Salit, Phyllis Myers, Sam Briger, Lauren Krenzel, Heidi Saman, Therese Madden, Ann Marie Baldonado, Thea Chaloner, Seth Kelley and Kayla Lattimore. In 2014, the government introduced the Counterterrorism and Security Act which made the Prevent strategy a legal duty for public sector institutions. Prior to that, Clarke was appointed to the board of the Charity Commission in 2013 when Shawcross was Chair (Shawcross is currently leading the government review of the Prevent strategy), and when it began to heavily target and investigate Muslim groups. Ive seen magicians do way cooler stuff in front of me, doesnt mean they actually teleported. I wanted the evidence, I wanted a confession, and I wasnt willing to stop short of that. It excels in bringing you inside the investigation. In bed with Blume We spoke for over an hour about how the series became what it is, the many controversies its sparked, the evolution of his conflict with co-host Brian Reed, and what he thinks of how the show ended. It just seems wild that a Muslim would spread such fervent anti-Islam sentiment by faking an extremist Muslim plot. Painful memories are likely to be revived in a broadcast about the fabricated 2014 plot to Islamise the citys schools. A new podcast tells the story behind the fake document. So I was excited to tune into its new offering with the. BRIAN REED: I don't think about that when I'm doing a story. You think an Australian journalist would have tried to do a door stop interview by now. He can run, but he can't hide. But it didnt take long. The front-loading of concern of objectivity is the reason were all placed in this situation, where were basically having to mitigate for ourselves or make excuses for our presence all the time. 0 0. They differ in nationality, journalistic experience and, of course, racial backgrounds. And honestly I think all minority groups have someone willing to throw the whole under the bus for their own personal gain so that hardly disqualifies her. The fact they showed up at the 11th hour, testified in favour of Rizwana, and then have kept omert and fled the UK in Mark's case makes me think there's some kind of unseen hand that was moving chess pieces into play. Ultimately, one false narrative that there was a problem of violent extremism in these schools is never improved by another: that beyond Islamophobia there was nothing much to see here at all. WebWalters represented England at schoolboy and under 21 levels before he earning his only full cap under Graham Taylor whilst he was with Rangers. For a podcast that asks a lot of questions, The Trojan Horse Affair offers few concrete answersor at least not the ones many listeners expected to hear. Unless he misspelled it in the same way. Similarly, the Kershaw report found no evidence of a conspiracy to promote an anti-British agenda, violent extremism, or radicalisation in schools and reported there is little express evidence to which I can point of a systematic plot or co-ordinated plan to take over schools serving students of predominantly Muslim faith or background. If she feels we could have gone further, thats fair. How do you feel about that trip in hindsight? And hopefully through that process, they learn something about Islamophobia as well. At the heart of the podcast is the partnership between Reed and Syed, who also produced the series with Rebecca Laks. How else to make sense of their indignation that the government wheeled out no child witnesses in the relevant teacher disciplinary hearings? Syed is still taking it all in after working on this and finishing his masters in journalism in one whirlwind.
Mark and Rizwana were close, both professionally and personally. Was there conflict beyond what we hear? Thanks for suggesting the multiple reasons. Try listening here. The truth that they find is messy, unexpected and inconvenient to the story other people want to believe. After learning about the petty personnel dispute that probably gave rise to the letter, theyre even more bewildered about how it ever could have been taken seriously.
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