I went to one of the schools named in the Trojan Horse scandal

I attended Park View School in Birmingham between 2005 and 2010. It gave me the life I now live, and I am forever grateful

‘The Trojan Horse’ podcast captured what institutional Islamophobia feels like in this country (Getty Images)

I remember the day that I first heard about the Trojan Horse scandal. I was in my final year at university, and a good friend of mine called me to ask if I had heard of the “Trojan Horse thing”.

I had no idea what she was talking about. She explained that a letter had been sent to Birmingham City Council, detailing a plan for Muslims to take over schools. The bit that had her riled up was that the main school accused was Park View, the secondary school we had both attended.

For the next three years, it was all we could talk about. Amongst other conversations about the way our lives were shaping up after leaving university, we discussed the court case, watched government announcements and saw laws change in the face of it. My friend received a message from one of our teachers asking her to be a witness in the court case (I had deleted Facebook and was never contacted). She also went to watch the play based on the case (her verdict: boring and untrue).

As the years went on, we stopped talking about it. The case was dropped, the school renamed, and my community tried to move on.

Until a trailer for something called The Trojan Horse Affair, the new podcast series from the New York Times and by the co-creator of the hit podcast Serial, arrived on my phone and all the memories came rushing back.

I went to Park View School in Birmingham between 2005 and 2010. The teachers named in the podcast? I was taught by them. I knew Steve and Sue Packer. I have spoken to Tahir Alam, and have a personal relationship with him.

Listening to that podcast was like existing in a Twilight Zone episode; my past came to life. I got through all eight episodes in a day, my mouth agape as I absorbed the theories about who might have written the letter and what for, and the impact it had on the way this country treats Muslims. Since then, I have thought long and hard about my education at Park View School.

I recall our PE classes being segregated by gender – but I also remember that happening at primary school and for other schools in the area. I remember praying at lunchtime, but that was always optional and often, I wouldn’t. I remember our lunch hour being shortened for Ramadan, something we all appreciated. We were a school filled with Muslims, and valued how this was taken into consideration.

I also remember our teachers being a little too personal with us; they knew our families and often, we would be threatened with something finding its way back to our parents. Not through a phone call home but a whispered comment at someone’s house. A few of the teachers knew my uncles, had gone to school with them, and would say that they would let them know should I misbehave.

What I remember most, though, is the quality of the education I was given, being pushed to do better, and my classmates and I being told over and over again that we mattered. It wasn’t important that our fathers and mothers were immigrants from Pakistan, that they worked as taxi drivers or in corner shops or restaurants. We were going to transcend British ideas of what Muslims could be. Surrounded by that kind of positivity empowered me; I never felt like there was anything I couldn’t accomplish. For a while, I even harboured ideas about going to Oxford, simply because the teachers at Park View made me feel like I could.

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My year at that school had close to an 80 per cent pass rate and the majority of us went on to college and university. I have gone on to earn an English degree, a career at Penguin Random House, and secure a book deal with an incredible publisher. And I am definitely not alone among my classmates in succeeding like this. The so-called “Trojan Horse” school gave me the life I now live, and I am forever grateful for it.

Seeing members of the British media attempt to dismiss the validity of The Trojan Horse Affair podcast, by accusing it of reopening “old wounds” (before the podcast was even released, I might add) or of ignoring child abuse, or of not having journalistic integrity, is, at best, untrue, and at worst, symptomatic of a wider sentiment towards Muslims in Britain.

The podcast captured what institutional Islamophobia feels like in this country. Listening to journalists Hamza Syed and Brian Reed constantly hitting walls in asking simple questions echoed experiences I had at university, in my career, in casual conversations.

I hope that this podcast opens a conversation in which we can make progress, but I know the reality of this country’s relationship to Islam all too well.

Kasim Ali is the author of Good Intentions, published by 4th Estate