Introducing Hamid Patel, Britain’s New Education Boss

Hamid Patel — Sir Hamid Patel — has recently been appointed as the interim chairman of the board of OFSTED in the U.K., the body that oversees educational standards in state schools. His background makes clear that he has deep Islamist sympathies. More on his disturbing background, and even more disturbing appointment, can be found here.

Undercover investigations, extremist ties and troubling classroom teachings—these are just some of the controversies surrounding Sir Hamid Patel, the newly appointed interim chairman of the board of the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills, OFSTED, the United Kingdom’s educational standards office. Once the head of schools where staff allegedly called for the stoning of gay people and banned music as “satanic,” Patel now holds significant influence over the direction of British education.

A Channel 4 “Dispatches” documentary claimed alarming practices within Tauheedul schools under Patel’s leadership. Investigators recorded staff at one of the schools, declaring that clapping and whistling were “satanic,” that ties were forbidden because they could turn into serpents on the “day of judgement” and that homosexuals should be “stoned to death.”

Despite this, Patel was awarded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire Award in 2015 for his services to education, a move that raised eyebrows given the extremist ideology circulating within schools under his trust. His influence extends beyond education, as he also oversees an Islamic charity that includes figures with hardline Salafist and Deobandi beliefs—some of whom have voiced support for the Taliban.

Concerns over Patel’s suitability for the Ofsted role stem from past affiliations with radical clerics. In 2010, a school under his leadership invited Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Sudais—a Saudi cleric notorious for calling Jews “pigs” and praying for their annihilation. Schools under Patel have also hosted Ismail Menk, who has openly described homosexuals as “filthy” and “worse than dogs and pigs.”

The “Trojan Horse” affair, which exposed the Islamist infiltration of Birmingham schools, revealed disturbing practices—including the forced removal of secular headteachers, segregated classrooms and the restriction of “un-Islamic” subjects like biology.

Rather than acknowledging the depth of the scandal, Patel has downplayed the findings, arguing that the affair created “establishment suspicion.” His stance raises concerns about how the United Kingdom’s education system, under his leadership, will address extremism in schools moving forward.

According to Conservative Post, under Patel’s leadership, Star Academies Trust enforced strict Islamic practices in its schools. Pupils were encouraged to wear the hijab outside of school, to recite the Quran weekly, and to avoid stationery featuring “un-Islamic images,” including pictures of pop stars. These alleged policies fuel concerns about religious conservatism in schools meant to provide a broad and balanced education….

In 2010, a school under his leadership invited Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Sudais, a Saudi cleric notorious for calling Jews “pigs” and praying for their annihilation, to speak to students. Other schools under Hamid’s direction invited another sheikh, Ismail Menk. to speak. Menk has repeatedly described homosexuals as “filthy” and “worse than dogs and pigs.”

The government that put Hamid Patel in charge of educational standards in the country’s schools has to reconsider that appointment in light of all the information about him that has come to light. He directed schools where secular teachers were hounded out. Patel was the head of the Star Academies Trust, consisting of several dozen schools, where pupils “were encouraged to wear the hijab outside of school, to recite the Quran weekly, and to avoid stationery featuring ‘un-Islamic images,’ including pictures of pop stars.”

At still another school under Patel’s leadership, investigators recorded staff declaring that clapping and whistling were “satanic,” that ties were forbidden because they could turn into serpents on the “day of judgement,” and that homosexuals should be “stoned to death.”

And there is much more in this vein, by both the teachers, and visiting speakers, at the schools Hamid Patel directed, and where Islam now holds unchallenged sway.

A question for the government of Keir Starmer: who decided that Hamid Patel was the right man to head OFSTED? And now that every disturbing aspect of his Islamist past, as shown in the practices at the schools he directed, has come to light, will the government now dismiss him? Or is Starmer too afraid, like so many British officials, of being called a “racist” and an “Islamophobe”?