Trojan Horse plotFour former teaching assistants from Birmingham's “Trojan Horse”-plot school arrested

The alleged Trojan Horse school take-over plot in Birmingham, U.K., has taken another twist last Thursday when four women connected to a school mentioned as part of the alleged Islamist plot were arrested in connection with an ongoing fraud investigation at the school.

“It’s alleged the women were involved in a bogus resignation letters plot at Adderley primary school in Saltley,” the West Midland police said in a statement.

The Guardian reports that Adderley primary was discussed in detail in the original document outlining the supposed Trojan Horse conspiracy. The document is a how-to guide for hardline Islamists wanting to advance the cause of jihad by overthrowing headmasters and senior teachers at state schools in Birmingham (see “Allegations about Muslim plot to take over U.K. schools rock Britain,” HSNW, 16 April 2014).

West Midland police detectives insist, however, that the investigation is not linked to Birmingham city council’s inquiry into whether or not there was such a plot.

The Trojan Horse document claimed that four teaching assistants — three Muslim women of Pakistani origin and one white, non-Muslim woman — had conspired to get Adderley’s head-teacher sacked over a disagreement about whether or not the four had handed in their resignations at the end of 2012.

The document, however, also makes a number of factual errors. One of the alleged plotters, Birmingham school governor Tahir Alam, said the document was a hoax and a “malicious fabrication.”

Sources in the West Midland Police said they are leaning toward the view that the document was a hoax, but said they would wait until the Birmingham city council investigation is concluded.

The Guardian notes that one of the four women arrested is Hilary Owens, who is among the teaching assistants referred to in the Trojan Horse document.

The document refers to the head of Adderley school, Rizvana Darr, as “not a good Muslim” and “not open to our suggestions of adhering to strict Muslim guidelines.”

The four teaching assistants are suing Adderley for what they regard as an unfair dismissal, claiming they were ousted after someone faked resignation letters in late 2012 carrying their signatures. The four say they told Adderley they had no intention of quitting and their signatures were forged after they complained to the local authority about their treatment at the school.

In January 2013 the four teaching assistants told the West Midland Police that they had been forced out of the school in December 2012 as a result of the “fake” resignation letters.

The alleged plotters in the Trojan Horse document note that Darr, the head of Adderley, is “procedurally strong and so we had to find a reason for her to be sacked linked to procedures.”

The document says: “Three of our Muslim sisters … along with an English woman who is their close friend, have raised an allegation of fraudulent resignation letters against the head (even though they did actually write the letters themselves).”

Education Secretary Michael Gove is taking the Trojan Horse document seriously, and last week, in a move that was welcomed with a chorus of criticism, appointed Peter Clarke, former head of Scotland Yard’s counterterrorism branch, to lead an inquiry. Birmingham city council is running its own parallel investigation in the alleged plot.

Critics of Gove’s appointment of Clarke say that by appointing such a high-level counterterrorism expert to conduct a parallel investigation, the secretary has, in effect, lent credence to the idea that there was such a plot at the time when all signs indicate it was a hoax.

In a statement sent to the Guardian last month, the Adderley school governors said: “The ‘Operation Trojan Horse’ plot is not unique to Adderley Primary School.

“It is imperative that all efforts are made to identify how many other schools have been targeted. It is important those involved are not allowed to divert attention from the seriousness of this issue by making false allegations to take the spotlight off themselves and their actions.

“It is evident that some individuals are now concocting stories to incriminate others to ensure their actions remain hidden.”