The home of a convicted rapist is being used as an unregulated Islamic school for children. Ghulam Haider’s wife is teaching around 17 children of primary school age at the madrassa that she runs from their front room at weekends.
Former taxi driver Haider, 61, was jailed for six years in 2006 after a court heard he brutally raped a 16-year-old in a derelict churchyard and was put on the sex offender register for life.
The madrassa highlights a safeguarding loophole around children attending ‘out of school education’ centres, which require no monitoring from education watchdog Ofsted or local authorities.
There is also no requirement for Haider’s wife, Sadiqqa, who teaches classes in their front room, to submit to Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks which would flag up Haider’s conviction and are intended to prevent unsuitable people from working with vulnerable groups, including children.
Ofsted described the madrassa, run from Haider’s semi-detached home in Acocks Green, Birmingham, as ‘deeply worrying’.
The watchdog’s head, Amanda Spielman, has previously warned that Islamic hardliners are preaching extreme doctrines in underground schools across the UK.
Her predecessor Sir Michael Wilshaw said: ‘I raised this issue time and time again when I was at Ofsted.
Unregistered schools by their very nature are outside of the law and I was concerned that they were increasing in number, particularly in cities like Birmingham.
‘The Government needs to think about how both schools outside of mainstream education and madrassas such as this need to be properly regulated and inspected.’
Birmingham City Council said the situation was ‘nothing short of appalling’ and the case highlighted the need for an overhaul of regulations.
Last Saturday, reporters from the Daily Mail watched from a parked car as 17 boys and girls were dropped off at Haider’s home for a two-hour session learning the Koran. When they approahed the parents they found that only two of the childrens’ parents were aware of Haider’s past.
One father – angry that he had not been told – confronted Mrs Haider and vowed never to send his daughter back to the lessons. Another father, who paid £25 a month for his son to attend on Saturdays and Sundays, admitted he knew about Haider’s conviction and was ‘concerned’ about it.
Other parents seemed unconcerned when informed of Haider’s past. Some said they didn’t even know who was teaching their child whilst some of the parents said the lessons were free because they knew the family.
When the reporters approached his wife last Saturday she said her husband was ‘at work’ and claimed his victim had made up the allegations. She added: ‘This is not a proper madrassa. All the children are my neighbours and things like that.’
Mrs Haider, who has four children with her husband, said he was ‘not involved’ in running of the school. They share the home with one of their daughters and son Ammar, 31, a convicted fraudster who was released from prison on licence in March.
Daily Mail spoke to Lorna Fitzjohn, Ofsted’s regional director for the West Midlands, said that Ofsted could do little without extra powers and added: ‘While the majority of these places provide enriching extra-curricular activities and education to children, we remain worried that a minority are putting children at risk of harm by failing to adhere to basic safeguarding standards, or by exposing them to unsuitable or extremist individuals.’
Meanwhile a Birmingham City Council spokesman called for better regulations and said it was working with police and the Government to see what could be done. There is a vetting system for those working with children in youth clubs, or similar settings, under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006. But those running schools under the radar can easily flout the law by saying they are only hosting family friends.
The DoE spokesman said there are ‘clear powers’ for police and local authorities to intervene in concerning cases, and a £3million fund had been allocated for local authorities to help them deal with such cases.
