A dispute over how to combat the threat of homegrown Islamic extremism in British schools has provoked a political crisis, prompting the personal intervention of Prime Minister David Cameron, a public apology from one senior minister and the resignation of an adviser to another.

The rift followed allegations that Islamic fundamentalists had plotted to infiltrate and take over schools in Birmingham, home to a significant Muslim population.

The claims are as yet unproven, but they have divided ministers on whether they should concentrate on tracking suspects thought most likely to commit acts of terrorism or wage a broader cultural battle at the community level against the spread of fundamentalist theology.

The disagreement within government underlines the sensitivity of the issue in a country in which Muslims radicalized in British cities have committed acts of terrorism, including the brutal daylight murder last year of a soldier, Lee Rigby, on a street in south London.

Like many European nations, Britain has debated how to assimilate minorities while maintaining freedom of religion. One issue is the extent to which schools should tolerate symbols and clothing associated with religious beliefs, such as Muslim headscarves. In British schools, much discretion remains with head teachers.

Last year, the Birmingham City Council received an anonymous document outlining a plan called Operation Trojan Horse, in which fundamentalist parents would raise concerns about the staff and curriculum, particularly over issues like sex education, infiltrate the governing bodies of the school and then promote a leadership sympathetic to their views.

It is unclear what steps schools took in response to the document, and several governmental bodies are looking into the case. In all, 21 schools are being investigated over claims that male and female pupils were segregated, that sex education was banned and that, in one case, a cleric linked to Al Qaeda was praised in a school assembly.

While one leaked report from school inspectors appears to have flagged concerns, evidence of a conspiracy is scarce. According to news reports, the leaked report from the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills, or Ofsted, detailed several criticisms of one school, Park View, and said it had done too little to warn pupils about the dangers of extremism.

read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/world/europe/rift-deepens-over-claims-of-infiltration-by-islamic-extremists-in-british-schools.html?hp&_r=0

Meanwhile:

Heavily armed gunmen have attacked Karachi international airport in Pakistan, killing at least nine people.

Hospital sources say three of the gunmen who attacked Jinnah International Airport's old terminal have also been killed.

Security personnel have sealed off the airport and army commandos have been called in, with gunfire continuing.

All operations at the terminal have been suspended and all flights to the airport are being diverted.

Staff are being evacuated.

At least 14 people have been wounded.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27757264

An Al Qaeda-linked militant group which has seized the northern Iraqi city of Mosul has extended its control to an area further south that includes the country's biggest oil refinery.

Security sources said militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) - Sunni militants waging sectarian war on both sides of the Iraqi-Syrian frontier - drove into the town of Baiji in armoured vehicles, torching the court house and police station after freeing prisoners.

ISIS militants offered safe passage to some 250 men guarding the refinery on the outskirts of Baiji, about 200 kilometres south of Mosul, on the condition they leave.

The capture of the key facility came a day after the insurgents took control of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, and much of the northern province of Nineveh after days of sustained fighting.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-12/isis-militants-expand-across-northern-iraq/5517046

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What should the US do? Good question. Considering the US helped create this mess  (it did create the mess but I'm nice about it) by removing Saddam who was able to keep Al Qaeda out of Iraq, while maintaining "peace" by killing some of his terrorist enemies, now the SAME extremist mob which the US supports in Syria to please their friends, the Saudis, is also taking over Iraq... or trying to... The Sunni extremists are taking over the "situation" despite the US having done and doing some surgical strikes with drones which the extremists use as a reason to breed in revenge. Would not you?... I suppose our former minstrel of war John Howard is proud of the result of his whim in which he took Australia to war to please his idiot friend, now a painter of renown, Dubya Bushit.

Are we serious? 

The only solution now here is to a) stop supplying aid to terrorists in Syria b) get Iran and Russia to swat the Al Qaeda mob in Iraq and c) stop helping the Saudis fuel the mess. Blimey.

And stop call these thugs "militants"... They are the same branch of "terrorists" who brought down your Twin Towers of power. And start to develop a sense of humility rather than testosterone in your guns.

as The Americans are bombing their own equipment which they left in Iraq for the Iraqi army to use to defend their country against... Well, you know ISis has taken over the said equipment when the Iraqi army ran away... You know... 

But apparently, Al Qaeda and Isis are fighting (virtually of course) over who is going to control the minds of the poor bastards that they are pinching the property thereof... And should the people oppose the new rulers, they get decapitated, shot and murdered in murders that are genocidal. 

But fear not these two organisations could have been the one the US and the West were prepared (and have done indirectly) to support against Assad the villain... Yes we are in a mess-pickle of historical proportions as poor Obama has to help people stranded by Isis...

See also: friends like these...