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.

All the people who are sending him death threats, and anyone engaging in promoting these death threats are engaging in hate speech.

Someone showing a cartoon is not.

You people, defending these lunatics calling for the death of a teacher over a CARTOON, are absolutely insane.

Glad that's cleared up.

This

All the people who are sending him death threats, and anyone engaging in promoting these death threats are engaging in hate speech

That's why I wondered how many of them have been prosecuted, @TENSsion - especially considering just how fast the system's been made to operate for others

So far I'm not aware of any, but of course I could be wrong

If anyone would like to read the Khan review into what happened it's here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-khan-review-threats-to-social-cohesion-and-democratic-resilience

Interesting that in a further BBC article they didn't feature any "people in Batley" who'd condemn the protesters' actions, though they were happy to criticise the school leadership and structure and misinformation/social media
Even the police, while insisting they take threatening behaviour seriously and that "measures were put in place" failed to mention any consequences for that behaviour:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-68659435#:~:text=A%20religious%20studies%20teacher%20at,the%20trust%20running%20the%20school.

This is from the Khan report:

"There also appeared to be a poor understanding of cohesion, where appeasing the protestors to secure the end of the protests – at the expense of the religious studies teacher – appeared to be the priority.

Such an approach would arguably undermine cohesion in the long-term as it appears to appease and encourage those who create an intimidating environment to enforce their beliefs, irrespective of the rights of others.

We heard of more cases of self-appointed ‘community faith leaders’ aggressively interfering in everyday teaching at some schools in Batley and creating a climate of fear. This appears to suggest there is a wider cultural problem in the area that is not being adequately addressed."

I don't understand how we've got here. Why are these self appointed leaders being allowed to interfer in schools?

Why are threatening and intimidating people being appeased at the expense of everything else? It just encourages this kind of behaviour rather than containing it.

I can't find any mention of the teacher's views.

The lesson was part of the school curriculum, it had been signed off by the leadership team of the school and taught for the last two years by two other teachers.

After the lesson, a parent phoned the teacher and said 'there will be repercussions for his actions.' There followed protests outside the school, sharing of the teachers name, his picture and address, his wife's picture, pictures of their car. Even a local charity published the teachers name, accusing him of "terrorism" and "insulting Islam". The death threats didn't come out of the blue, they were purposefully incited.

Do you really think that this teacher gave cause for these actions?

@username358 I rather expect that the report inclusions you mentioned may have fed into the police/CPS reluctance to pursue any prosecutions

The vast majority of thoroughly decent muslims would go nowhere near these threats, but as it says very clearly the minority who enjoy causing trouble were appeased, doubtless in tthe name of "community sensitivities"

The crying shame of this is that it doesn't work; the screamers and spitters regard it as weakness and licence, and respectable community members who are utterly sick of such people reflecting on them are chucked under the bus once again

Everyone has the right to protest but in the correct manner.

On the flip side… others must not harass and intimidate anyone especially at their home.

The school throw the teachers under the bus. They are the backbone of good society. They should have supported them in this distressing time.

We don’t have blasphemy laws and most of us don’t want them.

Yes in a normal community parents would have complained and he would have been reprimanded. But nooooo this man got bloody death threast. The Uk police are basically rolling over for islamic extremism. It doesn’t shut them up it encourages them.

What they should have done is said “nothing illegal has happened here, expect for people harassing this man and threatening him, we will be tracking down each and every one of you and you will be charged.”

This is exactly the point I was making earlier. The way this country handles 'community cohesion' is completely wrong.

You shouldn't capitulate to bullies and these self appointed community leaders aren't representative of the majority.

These people often police others within their community as well. They create an atmosphere of fear and unease.

Violence and harassment must never be condoned.

It had been taught before and the headmaster had been happy with the lesson content. Teachers and schools should not be answerable to Imans

And the school wouldn’t have been able to sack him even if they’d wanted to. We have employment rights in this country. Teaching pre approved material is not gross misconduct.

Thank goodness the voting on this issue is looking pretty conclusive. The vile views expressed by one or two on here obviously only represent a very tiny proportion .

Yes, the great unsayable.

We have terrifying gangs of militant Methodists round my way😉

Suppression of free thinking and free expression. Already here and probably already in a town near you.

It’s appalling. Particularly when so much of public organised Islam is so deeply anti-Semitic. Seems it’s ok to be rude or satirical about the Jews, but not put Islam.

We live in a country where there is religious freedom. Rightly, freedom of worship is a British value. And with hat goes the freedom to mock, to satirise, to criticise religions.

He chose a offensive caricature to use. If it was a sexist or racist caricature, posters would be calling for him to be sacked and he would have broken laws and policies

No he wouldn’t. The clue in the ord “caricature.” A caricature is satirical but rarely a hate crime.

Unless you’re hypersensitive. Britain has long and honourable tradition of muck-raking satires. It’s part of our political culture. If you can’t cope, examine yourself - why are you so oversensitive?

I'm not sure about this I think it very much depends on the context the images are being used in. For example I remember in school being shown horrible anti semitic propaganda in the context of how wrong the holocaust was and how it happened. If the context is appropriate then why shouldn't the images be shown - children could come across them in other settings especially with the Internet being so readily accessible now so better to me that these things are discussed and debated safely in a classroom with a teacher to navigate and guide. To me this is part of the reason why teachers feel really underequipped to deal with many social issues like racial inequality when actually teachers are probably in one of the best positions to do that.

He chose a offensive caricature to use. If it was a sexist or racist caricature, posters would be calling for him to be sacked and he would have broken laws and policies

Teachers use this sort of material in History and Politics lessons all the time . ( eg Sexist and misogynistic cartoons during Suffragette period/ racist caricatures about the Irish in the 19th century etc)
While he may have been unwise in this context it is simply not true that he has broken laws .
And even if he had done something wrong ( and I don’t think he had) It still wouldn’t been acceptable for him to have been hounded and threatened.
It’s really shocking that some people on here think their offended feelings are more important than someone’s life or livelihood.

I've seen quite a lot of Islamaphobia by Jewish people. It seems to go both ways.

“You shouldn't capitulate to bullies and these self appointed community leaders aren't representative of the majority.”

💯