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In this session, we will discuss claims that ‘multiculturalism’ has failed, and that British Muslims lead separate lives, with Professor John Holmwood. He believes these claims are false and have fuelled a ‘nationalist’ discourse that risks polarisation, and will use the Birmingham ‘Trojan Horse’ affair as an illustration.
Sharon Clancy & Jo-Anna Russon
David Cameron’s Munich Security Conference speech in 2011 set out that ‘multiculturalism had failed’. This involved the argument that Britain’s Muslim communities lived separate lives and had failed to integrate, though it provided no evidence for the claim. This view influenced media reporting and government inquiries into the Birmingham Trojan Horse affair of a plot by teachers and governors to ‘Islamicise’ schools in Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester. The ‘plot’ was the only example provided in 2015 for the need for a new Counter Extremism Strategy and a new duty on schools to teach fundamental British values.
A legal case against the teachers collapsed because of misconduct by lawyers acting for the Department for Education, something that was argued by commentators and right wing think tanks such as Policy Exchange as a technical issue and not an indication that there was a problem of evidence.
An introduction to the affair and difficulties with it by John Holmwood and Therese O’Toole can be downloaded from Bristol University Press. A play by LUNG theatre, Trojan Horse, has been on national tour, now brought to an end by Covid-19
University of NottinghamJubilee CampusWollaton Road Nottingham, NG8 1BB
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