A Muslim teacher has claimed he was only able to secure a job interview at a London school after pretending to be a “white British applicant,” the Newham Recorder reports.
Hamid Mahmood changed his name to “Harry Mason” on his CV when applying for a Religious Studies teaching post at Langdon Academy for a second time, because he wanted to see if his “race or religion had anything to do with the constant rejections”.
The experienced teacher said he was “shocked” after receiving a job interview hours after applying with a different identity, claiming the outcome shows his “fears of discrimination are true”.
However, a spokesman for Langdon Academy in East Ham has rejected Mr Mahmood’s claims, stating the academy has “a proud record of equal opportunities recruitment”.
Mr Mahmood told the Newham Recorder that he had been turned down from thirty teaching posts in the last year despite having a first class Master’s degree and a distinction in his teaching qualification.
Mr Mahmood was also turned down for a teaching position at Langdon Academy in March last year.
Constant rejections from other schools prompted him to re-apply for the same position at Langdon when it reappeared in May, only this time with a different identity.
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The 30-year-old claimed he changed his name and “deleted any reference to Islam” but said “no other changes were made to the CV”.
He added: “Before I applied last year, I called them up and they seemed very positive about the application, but then when I applied I didn’t hear back. I’m also sure that nobody else was hired because they re-advertised the job a month later in April.
“So, when the same position came up this year in May, I decided to apply again but this time I changed my name to Harry Mason and took out any reference to Islam.”
However, a spokesman for the school has “refuted” the discrimination allegation “entirely”.
“At Langdon Academy we are proud of the wide cultural and ethnic diversity of our staff and confident in our recruitment procedures,” he said.
“During 2014-15 we recruited more staff of Islamic faith than any other religious domination, including both new appointments to our Senior Leadership Team. The head of our Religious Education is also an Asian Muslim.
“Our formal complaints procedure is available on our website at bramptonmanor.org and, should Mr Mahmood wish to contact us directly, we would be happy to go through this with him.”
