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Convicted terrorist banned from managing schools

Mohammed Mizanur Rahman was previously a proprietor of the unregistered Siddeeq Academy in Tower Hamlets, east London.

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Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, who has been banned from managing schools (Metropolitan Police/PA)

A convicted terrorist has been banned from being involved in the running of schools in order to protect children from “dangerous influences”.

Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, an associate of Anjem Choudary, was barred under Section 128 of the Education Act.

He was previously a proprietor of the unregistered Siddeeq Academy in Tower Hamlets, east London, which closed in 2015 after his arrest.

In 2016 he was jailed for five-and-a-half years, alongside Choudary, for inviting support for Islamic State.

Rahman was released from prison in October 24 last year, prompting Education Secretary Damian Hinds to issue the direction which was made last month but only published on Thursday.

It is the third time powers under section 128 have been exercised since it came into force in September 2014.

The direction states that Rahman is “unsuitable to take part in the management of an independent school (including an academy or Free School)”.

It continues: “The barring decision also has the effect of disqualifying the person from being a governor at a maintained school.”

As well as the 2016 conviction, in 2006 Rahman was convicted of inciting racial hatred, the following year he was convicted of solicitation to murder.

The direction issued by Mr Hinds further states: “He (Rahman) also engaged in social media activity that was aimed at undermining fundamental British values and, in addition, was so inappropriate that, in the opinion of the Secretary of State, it makes Mr Rahman unsuitable to take part in the management of an independent school.”

A Department for Education spokesman said: “The Government has a duty to protect children from dangerous influences and Mizanur Rahman, who has been convicted under the terrorism act, quite clearly has no place in our schools.

“We will always act swiftly and decisively to safeguard our young people and this order is evidence of that.”

The first ever barring order was issued in 2015 to Tahir Alam who was at the heart of the alleged Trojan Horse plot by hard-line Muslims to take control of governing boards.

It said he engaged in conduct “aimed at undermining fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs”.

In 2017, Waseem Yaqub, former chairman of governors of Al-Hijrah School in Birmingham, was found to have engaged in inappropriate conduct which made him “unsuitable to take part in the management of an independent school”.

The direction said that: “In his various roles on Al-Hijrah’s governing body, Mr Yaqub promoted, permitted or failed to challenge inadequate financial monitoring and decision-making on the part of the governing body.”

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