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A Muslim MP has criticised a group for inviting a Trojan-Horse linked former school governor to talk at a secular education debate - despite him being banned from running schools.

Tahir Alam, 48, became the first person to be barred by the Government for “undermining British values” and failing to show tolerance to those of different faiths.

He was named in an anonymous letter in 2014 detailing ‘ Operation Trojan Horse ’ - an alleged plot by hardline Muslims to Islamise non-faith schools .

The letter sparked several investigations and saw Ofsted plunge five city schools into special measures.

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Mr Alam, from Small Heath, quit his role in 2014 as chair of governors at the former Park View Educational Trust, which ran Nansen Primary, and the former Park View and Golden Hillock schools.

The Department for Education (DfE) banned him from any involvement with schools, but last October he told the Birmingham Mail he was determined to remain working in education.

Mr Alam has now been invited to be a key speaker at a University of Birmingham student debate over whether education should be secular.

Organised by the Birmingham Humanists, in co-operation with the university’s Atheist and Secular Humanist Society, he will be there as part of his role as chairman of the Muslim Parents Association (MPA).

The DfE said the talk did not flout his ban, stating: “Tahir Alam is only prohibited from managing or governing schools.”

But Perry Beaches MP Khalid Mahmood criticised those behind the event for “giving him a platform to spout his ideologies”.

The Labour MP said: “With the record he has had and in light of the ban he has been given that it is irresponsible to give him this kind of opportunity.

“He is hardly a role model for education and he should have no real recognition in serious education discussion,

“This will, and rightly should, isolate him from being part of any future discussion about how we should shape education in this country.”

The Birmingham Humanists website describe Mr Alam as a “pariah figure” who would be explaining “how the needs of British Muslims should be accommodated” during the debate at the Edgbaston campus.

Its chairman Adrian Bailey said: “We followed the Trojan Horse scandal very closely and now we would like to hear from the horse’s mouth about how he justifies what he was doing.

“As humanists, we’re in favour of a secular education system, where children are able to learn about the world without indoctrination and without people ‘protecting’ them from certain influences or cultures.

“But, at the same time, we appreciate that there are a wide range of views among different people and cultures in the city, so we need to find a compromise.”

Mr Alam who vehemently denies the Trojan Horse allegations, said he planned on staging a series of public talks about Islam in education. “The ban from the DfE does not ban me from talking about education and i plan on doing that a lot on a very grand scale,” he said.

A University of Birmingham spokeswoman said: “Universities have a duty to promote free speech and open debate on key policy issues and this event, organised by our Guild of Students, involves a discussion between panellists representing a broad range of diverse views.

“Universities are plural societies that are home to differences of opinion, beliefs and perspectives.”