Birmingham MP Khalid Mahmood has hit out at suggestions that the Trojan Horse affair in Birmingham schools was an invention caused by Islamophobia.

He insisted the widely-reported problems in Birmingham schools were real, and that girls were being discriminated against.

And he said: "I was there. I confronted most of those people."

The Trojan Horse affair refers to attempts to impose a religious ethos on secular state schools in Birmingham.

But a report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims, which includes politicians from a range of parties, highlighted claims that the controversy was really an attack on Muslims.

The report's authors said they wanted "to give voice to the many victims of Islamophobia who shared their experiences with us", and then included comments from one un-named Birmingham person who told them: "Let’s not forget that we are standing in a city where the so called Trojan Horse affair happened.

"People are frustrated here because they have been vilified and victimized for being Muslim. Those schools involved in the so called Trojan horse affair were some of the top performing schools and now those schools have below average GCSE attainment levels.

"That’s Islamophobia."

Mr Mahmood told the House of Commons: "Chapter 4 of the report mentions Trojan horse, with which I am familiar. However, the way it is described in the report has no basis in the events on the ground.

"I was there. I confronted most of those people.

"I know how girls were made to sit at the back of the school because they were female, how they were all told to cover their heads and how they were supposed to move on."

Khalid Mahmood MP.
Khalid Mahmood MP.

He highlighted two investigations into Trojan Horse which found there had been real problems in schools.

Mr Mahmood said: "Two reports were done about that by Peter Clarke ​and Ian Kershaw. This report ignores all that work.

"It is therefore absurd to say that this report does something positive."

An inquiry by Ian Kershaw , an independent advisor appointed by Birmingham City Council, uncovered an attempt "to promote and encourage Islamic principles in the schools . . . for example, by seeking to introduce Islamic collective worship, or raising objections to elements of the school curriculum that are viewed as anti-Islamic (for example, sex education, mixed physical education or citizenship).”

And an inquiry in 2014 by Peter Clarke, who was appointed Education Commissioner for Birmingham by the Government, found “a sustained and coordinated agenda to impose upon children in a number of Birmingham schools the segregationist attitudes and practices of a hardline and politicised strand of Sunni Islam.”

Mr Mahmood, the first Muslim to be elected to represent an English constituency in the House of Commons, also criticised a proposed definition of Islamophobia.

Campaigners, including a number of Muslim politicians, want the Government and other organisations to adopt a definition of Islamophobia. They say this would make it easier to challenge and oppose anti-Muslim prejudice, and would make it easier for police to bring prosecutions.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims said in its report that the definition should read: "Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness."

But Mr Mahmood said this appeared to exclude people who did not dress or behave in a way that identified them as Muslims.

He said: "I have a very good friend who is a civil engineer and one of the most observant people of his religion I know.

"He does not walk around wearing a particular turban. He still works as an engineer, although a lot less than he used to because I think he wants to take it easier.

"He is a devout Muslim, but he cannot be identified through his attire. If the report is to go the way it seems to be, how can we protect those Muslims who dress normally in society but have in their heart those religious beliefs?"

A number of other Muslim politicians supported the proposed definition and criticised the Government for refusing to accept it.

Labour's Naz Shah (Bradford West) attacked the Conservatives as a "party in denial" of its own problem with Islamophobia, that was "not serious about the safety and security of British Muslims".