More than two years after he was arrested for firebombing a mosque, a Queens man has been found mentally fit to stand trial on state and federal hate crime charges, the Daily News has learned.
Ray Lengend was being treated at a maximum-security mental hospital until last month but is now fit to proceed, according to papers filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Verbal statement on Ofsted reports on Park View, Golden Hillock and Nansen schools delivered outside Park View School at 09.30 by Dave Hughes, vice chairman of Park View Educational Trust
On behalf of the staff, students and parents who have worked so hard to improve their schools, we are extremely disappointed to confirm that Ofsted have graded Park View, Golden Hillock and Nansen schools as inadequate and put them into Special Measures.
We support the role of Ofsted in holding schools to account in a fair and transparent way. But we wholeheartedly dispute the validity of these gradings.
Park View, Golden Hillock and Nansen are categorically not inadequate schools.
Our Ofsted inspections were ordered in a climate of suspicion created by the hoax Trojan Horse letter and anonymous, unproven allegations about our schools in the media.
Ofsted inspectors came to our schools looking for extremism, looking for segregation, looking for proof that our children have religion forced upon them as part of an Islamic plot.
The Ofsted reports find absolutely no evidence of this, because this is categorically not what is happening at our schools.
Our schools do not tolerate or promote extremism of any kind. We have made a major commitment to raising all students’ awareness of extremism. People who know and have worked with our schools are appalled at the way we have been misrepresented.
The Sunday Times – the newspaper responsible for presenting the transparently forged “Trojan horse” letter as genuine – has published an article by its political editor Tim Shipman based on a leaked report by the Education Funding Agency on the Oldknow Academy primary school in Birmingham.
Oldknow Academy has issued a point-by-point rebuttal of what they call a “vindictive and hate spreading article”. It states: “The contents of the article are wholly inaccurate, sensationalised and inflammatory and aimed at scaremongering the public.”
You can read the statement here.
Reports and comment from Islamophobia Watch 2-8 June 2014
Richard Adams poses the question that other journalists would be advised to ask.
See also “‘Trojan Horse’: Calls for interfaith task force”, BBC News, 8 June 2014
This is the headline to the latest article from the Mail on the supposed barbarism of halal slaughter.
Thousands of people have taken part in an anti-racism march in Belfast. Organisers said it was designed to “reassure ethnic and religious minorities in Northern Ireland”. Representatives of the Muslim community and trade unions were among those who spoke at a rally ahead of a march from Writers’ Square to Belfast City Hall.
It was organised in response to an upsurge in hate crime and controversial remarks about Islam by a pastor and First Minister Peter Robinson. Pastor James McConnell made a public apology on Friday for calling Islam “heathen” and “satanic”.
Saturday’s march was led by Belfast’s Lord Mayor, Nichola Mallon, Dr Donald Watts, president of the Irish Council of Churches and Dr Mazhar M Khan, a member of Northern Ireland’s Muslim community. Amnesty International, the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (NIC-ICTU) and the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities (NICEM) organised the event.
Staff and pupils at Birmingham school have been left baffled and angry over its media portrayal, Daniel Boffey reports.
See also “Bob Jones criticises Michael Gove’s interference in Trojan Horse investigation”, West Midlands Police Crime Commissioner press release, 6 June 2014
Celsius 7/7, published in the aftermath of the London bombings, provides insights into the political outlook of education secretary Michael Gove, argues Alan Travis.
See also Tom Griffin, “Michael Gove and the subversives”, Spinwatch, 6 June 2014
Ryan Lenz profiles David Horowitz, the “godfather of the modern anti-Muslim movement” in the Summer 2014 issue of the Southern Poverty Law Centre’s Intelligence Report.