@StocksAndScares
Given the controversy around this issue, I think we should really wait for all the facts to come out before commenting.
We know enough, including that a Muslim charity called 'Purpose of Life' released the name of the teacher concerned & in view of what happened in France not so long ago that is a pretty 'uncharitable' thing to do...
We certainly should be able to discuss my first point - why did the Police take a low-key approach to this protest, when they did not in London, at the Sarah Everard vigil?
Here is a good summary of the situation as it stands:
"In its 400-year history, Batley Grammar School will not have witnessed a scene like it. On Thursday morning, police officers stood at every entrance. On the main road outside, traffic had come to a standstill, a blockade put in place by officers.
On Carlinghow Hill in the West Yorkshire town, Muslim community leaders, parents and their children gathered outside the school gates, chanting in unison and demanding one of its young teachers be sacked on the spot. A few hours later, the school would announce the teacher’s suspension and the crowd would later melt away. Their job was done, for now.
The protest has thrust Batley Grammar, founded in 1612 by the Reverend William Lee and now a co-educational academy, into the limelight. But the origin of the dispute lies in a classroom lesson – on the subject of religious blasphemy – taught three days ago, on Monday, by one of its religious education teachers to a classroom of middle school teenagers.
What happened is now the centre of an internal investigation – the outcome will be scrutinised up and down the country. But what is clear that children came out of the class, seemingly in distress and deeply offended. Their religious teacher had shown them a cartoon or caricature of the Prophet Mohammed during Monday’s lesson.
According to one report, the teacher had told the children what he was about to show them would be controversial and they would tell their parents. If true, it is a prediction that proved to be all too accurate.
It’s not confirmed what was shown to the children but on social media parents would later complain they were “French” caricatures – a reference, it seems, to the deeply insulting Charlie Hebdo cartoons which the magazine published in 2012. Three years later the cartoons led to a terrorist gun attack on its Paris offices. Twelve people were murdered in the atrocity.
Another version of events suggests the children were shown an infamous cartoon by a Danish cartoonist that also provoked worldwide demonstrations when it was first published in 2006. The cartoon is open to interpretation either showing the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban or a generic Islamist terrorist with the bomb. Either way the cartoon is deeply offensive.
By Monday evening, tensions were inevitably rising. One parent in Thursday’s protest insisted the teacher had shown the images before. “It’s the second time this teacher has done this so they want him to be sacked," the parent told the local newspaper.
But quite what was shown is unclear. A reporter working for The Telegraph on the ground must have asked 20 parents and members of the community what precisely the teacher had shown the children but was unable to establish exactly what or the context. Many of the parents had heard second-hand reports but none necessarily seemed to know exactly what had happened.
Police block the road leading to the school
Police block the road leading to the school CREDIT: Lee McLean/SWNS
By Tuesday, the message was spreading. Parents approached a charity that works with the school called Purpose of Life. The organisation, based in West Yorkshire, has donated computers to Batley Grammar School and worked on humanitarian aid projects abroad.
Mohammad Sajad Hussain, from the charity, said he first received messages of concern and upset on Wednesday evening.
"We've been informed by parents from their children that they have been shown a picture of the Prophet, peace be upon him, who had a bomb in his turban," Mr Hussain told The Telegraph. "Fairly well-respected members of the community have confirmed the same as well."
By Wednesday night, the storm clouds were gathering. On Facebook, Zeeshan Mohammed published a poster declaring: “Defend the honour of our Prophet Mohammed.” In capital letters it said: “URGENT” and called for protesters to gather outside the school. It named the teacher – The Telegraph has chosen not to do so – and explained: “A teacher deliberately showed derogatory caricatures (French Cartoons) of our beloved Prophet Mohammad and told the students that it was his right to show this!”
The post went on: “He failed to apologise or accept any wrong doing when challenged by parents. It is imperative that ALL OF US turn up to demand the resignation of this teacher as an absolute minimum and fulfil our duty of defending the honour of RasoolAllah.”
Aware of Covid regulations, protesters were urged to attend in their cars if possible from 7.30am.
The school was now all too aware of the problem engulfing it. Batley Grammar’s headteacher Gary Kibble sent out a letter to all parents on Wednesday evening.
“The school would like to thank parents who contacted us on Monday 22 March highlighting concerns with a resource used in a RS lesson that day,” wrote Mr Kibble. “Upon investigation, it was clear that the resource used in the lesson was completely inappropriate and had the capacity to cause great offence to members of our school community, for which we would like to offer a sincere and full apology.”
Mr Kibble announced that the resource – presumably the cartoon – had been withdrawn as a classroom resource and the “suspension” of the lesson itself from the curriculum.
The protesters duly gathered at 7.30am joined by community leaders, among them Mufti Mohammed Amin Pandor, a local scholar and director of the Peace Institute. “What has happened in the school, we are appalled,” he told the crowd just after 11.30am. “What has happened is totally unacceptable and we have made sure that the school understands that.” The school had been preparing a statement, he said, but it was insufficient. “We have asked for amendments on the statement to say that they are very apologetic and they apologise. All the resources that were used have all been pulled out.”
Then he announced, before the school had, that the teacher had been suspended. “Due process” needed to be followed, said Mr Pandor. “You know you can't just dismiss someone like that, they have due process.”
At midday West Yorkshire Police issued a statement acknowledging “a small demonstration at the school”, while the local bus company announced public transport had had to be diverted. By midday, the parents were demanding the headteacher come outside and talk to them and shortly after that police began to threaten protesters with fines for defying Covid-19 regulations. The crowd began to disperse.
Outside the school, parents were furious and upset. A woman in her 40s with a child at the school said: "We have been told by the children that the image shown was from Charlie Hebdo. This is what some of the kids who were there have come out of school and told their parents.
"That connection makes us even more angry because those are famous images, everyone knows how offensive they are. I can't believe a religious studies teacher wouldn't know."
A man in his 30s added: "As far as I'm aware this is the first time images such as these from Charlie Hebdo have been used in a classroom. I can't think of any valid reason as to why anyone would do this, especially a teacher of religion."
By just before 2pm, the school announced the teacher had indeed been suspended and the crowd melted away. Mr Kibble went on television to apologise in person while the teacher who had caused the upset was said to be in hiding and given police security. The row had begun in a classroom in Batley Grammar School on Monday but its ramifications are likely to be felt for many, many days to come."