LONDON – The British government has announced that schools will be required to teach “British values” after inspectors found school board members with hard-line Muslim views had intimidated teachers and imposed religiously motivated restrictions at several institutions.
Inspectors were called in after an anonymous letter alleged a plot called “Operation Trojan Horse” by Muslim fundamentalists to infiltrate schools in Birmingham.
Authorities believe the letter was a hoax, but the alleged plot triggered inquiries and inflamed tensions in Britain’s second-largest city, which has a large Muslim population.
The Office for Standards in Education says five of 21 schools it inspected had failed to protect students from extremism.
One school attempted to ban mixed-sex swimming lessons; at another, music lessons were dropped because they were considered un-Islamic; and at a third, board members vetted the script for a nativity play and told staff they could not use a doll to represent the baby Jesus.