NO to Hamid Patel as Chair of Ofsted!

Voice for Justice UK started this petition to The Rt Hon Bridget Phillipson MP, Secretary of State for Education - 2025/03/21

Sir Hamid Patel has been appointed interim chairman for Ofsted, the schools’ regulatory body for England, pending the permanent appointment of a successor to Dame Christine Ryan. Sir Hamid is chief executive of Star Academies, a Muslim faith-based network of 36 schools, 21 of which are explicitly religious in character. Prior to that he was headteacher of Tauheedul Islam Girls' High School in Blackburn, where he encouraged pupils to recite the Koran at least once a week, to shun ‘un-Islamic’ images (e.g. pictures of popstars), and to wear the hijab both outside and inside school. In 2010, he invited to the school a Saudi Arabian cleric named Sheik Abdul Rahman al-Sudais, who, in a talk given to pupils, apparently described Jews as ‘pigs’ and led prayer for God to ‘terminate’ the Jews. In recent press coverage, Sir Hamid has appeared in the Islamic clerical dress of a mufti, or Islamic jurist.

Islam teaches that other religions (and especially Christianity) are ‘either fabricated and false or abrogated’ (https://islamqa.info/en/answers/21534/what-does-islam-say-about-other-religions) and that all non-Muslims will be consigned to the fires of hell. They further believe it is their religious duty to convert, forcibly if need be, all those who do not share their beliefs. And, while Muslims may pay lip-service to tolerance and respect for other faiths, their attempts to kill those who disagree or disrespect their faith, who convert from Islam, insult the prophet, or even merely express support for Israel – as evidenced in the increasing number of attacks being recorded on all counts in this nation and across the world – give the lie to any such claim.

For around the last 1,300 years, England has been, and still nominally remains, a Christian country. Currently, 46% of our population self-identify as Christian, 38% say they have no faith, and Muslims make up around 6%, with Hindus, Buddhists, and Sikhs coming in at 2% each (https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/constituency-data-religion/).

In a globally acknowledged, culturally diverse, Christian country, how can a devout Muslim, actively promoting compliance with Islam and demonstrably antagonistic towards Jews, be preferred, even if only interim, as Chair of the body responsible for regulating education throughout the whole of England?

For the protection of our children, our culture, our laws and national identity, this unwise appointment must not be permitted to continue.