By Andrew Gilligan

Last week, a deputy head teacher in Birmingham, called Razwan Faraz, tweeted a newspaper article casting doubt on claims that hard-line Muslims were plotting to take over some of the city’s state schools. “The truth reveals itself,” he said.

The document behind the claim, supposedly a “how-to” letter from one Muslim extremist to another, certainly had its problems. At least one of its claims was wrong, taking credit for the ousting of a head teacher that had occurred 20 years before. The very name the letter gave to the alleged operation, “Trojan Horse”, was perhaps a little too obvious. For that reason, this newspaper and others described it as a “purported” document.

But whether or not the letter is genuine, much of what it describes is certainly real.

Investigations by The Telegraph, separate to and in parallel with the “Trojan Horse” letter, reveal that there is indeed an organised group of Muslim teachers, education consultants, school governors and activists dedicated to furthering what one of them describes as an “Islamising agenda” in Birmingham’s schools. And Mr Faraz should know: he is at the heart of it.

They convene, among other places, on WhatsApp, a messaging service, where they have a closed discussion group called “Educational Activists”. In their messages, all of which have been leaked to this newspaper, the activists describe their goals and tactics. As one put it: “Let the schooling babysitters, the Department of Education and [schools inspectorate] Ofsted be factors of [merely] incidental importance in the Prophetic endeavour to raise and educate our young people.”