The teacher from Batley is still in hiding

[Nicetrynigel]

Teacher Batley
His life ruined because a bunch of thugs decided they didn't like what he was teaching in his RE lesson.
This and the Labour MP's request for bhalsphey laws against those of the Abrahamic faith have made me concerned.

People should be free to offer an view against another's religion. It's scary that we are being a country where people thing being offended gives them a right to made death threats.

Why then isn’t there a hearing or arrests of those who did the same to the teacher

Children are shown images of the swastika during history lessons.

He was teaching blasphemy
Giving visual examples of blasphemy because visual learning is an important and to some imperative tool in learning.

Swastikas will undoubtedly be part of a history lesson on the Nazi regime.
and also part of teaching on Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism in RS.

@BobbyBiscuits do you genuinely believe we shouldn’t show anything anyone might consider offensive?

In what way would you suggest to treat different religions differently?

Of course swastikas are shown in the WW2 lessons. How else would children know the symbol and it's meaning if they see it in their life?

The teacher used the images as illustration of blasphemy in a lesson teaching about appropriate reactions and how to discuss it.

All religious people need to understand that insulting them is legal. Rude and inconsiderate, but legal and their response need to reflect that. Majority can do it just fine. Minority is either dumb or extremists and need to be educated/dealt with.

Well, if there were, then that shouldn’t be tolerated either.

Firstly, the teacher was following a lesson plan which he'd been given and which had already been used at that school.

Secondly, I worked in the Glasgow area as a student teacher - including a school with "St" in front of its name. I well recall the excitement of the boys immediately prior to an Old Firm game.

There would have been no problem with discussing and displaying the iconography surrounding William of Orange in the context of an appropriate lesson, I can assure you. No one would have held up an image whilst shouting "King Billy, ya Bas!" and there is absolutely no suggestion from the report that the Batley teacher did anything of the sort.

Shouting a sectarian statement is very different from discussing an image in a school setting.

Jehovah's Witnesses are not pre-warned lesson by lesson. The know that RE lessons will discuss religious matters which do not chime with their beliefs, so parents remove their children from all RE lessons.

@TENSsion yes, because it has context in history. They wouldn't show it and tell people to draw it during an RE lesson about Judaism?
I just don't see the need, other than to be inflammatory.

@eightIsNewNine I get he was teaching blasphemy but I just don't think the actual pictures need to show. You can just say in Islam it's blasphemous for people to draw Mohamed. Everyone knows what a drawing of a guy wearing traditional old school Muslim clothing looks like, presuming that's how he was depicted.
It's clear he upset a lot of people, I think unnecessarily.

In RE (except in denominational schools) the lessons are educational rather than instructional. The only way for any parent to ensure that their children are not "tainted" by views which are in opposition to their religious beliefs is to withdraw them from all R.E. lessons.

As I've stated previously, this is precisely what some parents choose to do.

The "controversial" lesson which led to the teacher being threatened had already been taught before at the same school. For some reason, this time round someone decided to start a hate campaign against the teacher.

They might show it discussing antisemitism during a lesson on Judaism surely?
And how is telling people to draw something come into it? Did the teacher from Batley tell his students to draw anything?

In which case no images should be shown at all including blasphemous images in other religions.
In so doing teachers are denying an education to visual learners, not everyone can visualise, not everyone has a minds eye.

There was an attempt to set up an Islamic school in Glasgow some years back, but the Inspectorate had to close it down. It lacked qualified staff and - when interviewed separately, both boys and girls complained about their treatment.

I recall that girls were not receiving an equal education and boys were being beaten.

Sorry, I can't find and archived link. This was the paywalled Times article - and yes, the school was definitely closed.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/failing-muslim-school-may-be-closed-tprjkm2v0th

I don't know about England, but in Scotland it is important for Catholic schools to have a Catholic ethos.

Religious Instruction still exists there, though senior pupils can take the same RMPE (Religious Moral and Philosophical Education) exams as pupils in other schools - it's made available as a discrete subject.

Just to add that - yes, non-Catholics do attend Catholic schools in Scotland.

Similar perhaps to how we treat people. With respect and reasonable accomodations like we do for people . I don't believe people should be sending death threats, that is not at all to be tolerated. On the other hand though, I don't understand why people would go out of their way to disrespect other people's beliefs just because they can. If we all did that to each other, it would be a much worse world than we have today.

And how should children recognise a drawing of Mohamed if they never saw it? What is the line between a random old men in Arabic clothing and Mohamad picture? For me it is about the intention and context. If it wasn't a magazine cover, but cropped as a random internet meme, I wouldn't even recognise the "100 lashes if you don't die laughing!" image to be offending, it would look as a weird joke I don't fully understand to me.

Editted to tag this as a reponse to @BobbyBiscuits earlier on this page. Somehow the quoting is failing me today.

There was an attempt to set up an Islamic school in Glasgow some years back, but the Inspectorate had to close it down. It lacked qualified staff and - when interviewed separately, both boys and girls complained about their treatment.
I recall that girls were not receiving an equal education and boys were being beaten

We had the same in my east midlands city, @WearyAuldWumman - I wouldn't have minded quite so much had it been private, but this was a state funded school which turned out to be teaching little except the religion

And still there was wailing and gnashing of teeth, claims of discrimination and all the rest, except that this time those who'd have allowed it to continue - and of course screamed the loudest were fortunately outnumbered

But should some religions be entitled to more respect and accommodations than others? And if so, why?
People are free to practice their religion in this country, but does that mean their beliefs can’t be questioned or criticised by others because they might find it offensive?

The Christian Orthodox congregation in Edinburgh is attempting to set up its own primary school. The congregation is now mainly Greek, I believe; formerly, there was much more of a Slavic presence. Their original congregation consisted of Eastern European Displaced Persons. Now, the members are largely attached to the universities, either as students or as lecturers.

However, they've made it clear that their curriculum will articulate with the state school guidelines, so that children can transfer to an ordinary state school at any time.

To be honest, I doubt that they'll have enough funding to keep it going. The last that I checked, the fees were 5k a year. (It's not actually open yet.)

@StandingSideBySide I'm sure I learned about prejudice etc at school without needing certain visual images. I am not Muslim, so would be interested to hear if the average person in Islam, maybe not the most devout, would feel about it?

What blasphemous images would you find personally offensive and demand not to be shown?