Trojan Horse scandal
The Trojan Horse scandal, also known as "Operation Trojan Horse" or the Trojan Horse affair, was a conspiracy theory that posited a plot to introduce an "Islamist" or "Salafist" ethos into several schools in Birmingham, in the UK. The name, based on the Greek legend, comes from an anonymous letter sent to Birmingham City Council in late 2013, alleged to be from Birmingham "Islamists" detailing how to wrest control of a school, and speculating about expanding the scheme to other cities. The letter was leaked to the press in March 2014; a month later the Birmingham City Council said it had received hundreds of allegations of similar plots, some dating back over 20 years. The letter has been characterised as "incomplete, unsigned and unaddressed", but led to two investigations commissioned by the Department for Education and Birmingham City Council, the Clarke and Kershaw Reports, respectively. The reports found no "plot", but alleged "behaviour indicative of a concerted attempt to change schools." Tahir Alam, former chairman of the Park View Educational Trust, which ran three schools in Birmingham, was alleged to have written a 72-page document for the Muslim Council of Britain in 2007 detailing a blueprint for the "Islamisation" of secular state schools, a claim that has been widely debunked.
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