DAVID CAMERON’S pledge of a “robust response” to unsubstantiated allegations that radical Islamists are planning to take over our schools highlights the Establishment’s knee-jerk prejudice against British Muslims.

This entire storm in a teacup was whipped up in March following the publication of the unsigned, undated “Trojan Horse” letter, supposedly a how-to guide explaining what to do to win control of a school and now widely derided as a hoax.

Snap Ofsted inspections into a range of Birmingham schools which have high proportions of Muslim pupils were then ordered, mostly on the basis of anonymous accusations which appeared in the media.

There is no suggestion that the Ofsted findings have uncovered any evidence of an Islamist plot or of incitement to religious hatred.

Inspectors have graded five of the 21 schools inspected “inadequate,” with the vague rider that they may not be “doing enough” to protect pupils from extremism. 

Such judgements have been slammed as politically motivated, which is understandable in light of two of them being rated “outstanding” at their previous Ofsted inspections.

Mr Gove is now threatening to impose inspections without warning on all British schools, having concluded that they must be conspiring to pull the wool over inspectors’ eyes.

More likely the change simply reflects the inadequate nature of Ofsted reports as an accurate guide to a school’s performance, as long noted by Britain’s teaching unions. 

Such is the stress and disruption caused by endless inspections and an obsession with assessing children through ever more frequent examinations that the National Union of Teachers (NUT) has more than once voted to boycott Ofsted entirely.

More arbitrary snap inspections are hardly likely to help if there are problems with religious bigotry in schools, which the Department for Education’s ham-fisted, headline-chasing investigation — complete with the gimmick of putting anti-terrorism chief Peter Clarke in charge — has completely failed to establish.

As NUT general secretary Christine Blower argues, this whole sorry affair shows that “if schools sever their connection with a local authority the levers to monitor or effect change available at local level are lost.”

If Mr Gove had not replaced schools accountable to local authorities with academies run by shady private organisations which answer to no-one, any allegations of indoctrination being carried out in our schools could have been dealt with locally.

And if the government was really worried about people being “radicalised” into holding “un-British” values it could do better than spying on the country’s teachers.

Mr Gove is well known for his adoration of Tony Blair, whom he calls “the master.” Hence it is unsurprising that, like Blair, he thinks extremist Islamists spring into being without rhyme or reason, falling inexplicably under the influence of hate preachers of their own accord.

But not one act of terrorism can be attributed to young people being taught to hate the West at school. 

Overwhelming evidence points to the bloodbath launched by the US and Britain in Iraq, the repeated invasions, bombings and drone killings conducted by the West in the Muslim world and the continued support for the Israeli occupation of Palestine as the grievances which allow poisonous fanatics such as al-Qaida to flourish.

Mr Gove screamed “shame!” at MPs of all parties who last year broke the trend and voted not to launch military action against Syria, where al-Qaida-linked groups backed by the West are battling to overthrow the government.

And yet the Home Office admits that British people who travelled to Syria to fight the Bashar al-Assad regime have been “radicalised” by their terrorist trainers and now pose a threat to our own country.

The Conservatives should stop blaming our Muslim communities for Islamic extremism. They should take a long hard look at British foreign policy instead.