What the points are that the U.K. shouldn’t be profiting from regimes killing citizens and should be doing more
please log in to view this image Paul Embery @PaulEmbery In what other circumstances would a teacher's life be threatened by intolerant zealots and the teaching unions remain silent? Batley Grammar School teacher who showed pupils a cartoon of Prophet Mohamed fears for his life A former head of Ofsted told i that an exclusion zone should be set up outside the West Yorkshire school to protect pupils and staff from intimidation by demonstrators please log in to view this image The teacher at Batley Grammar School who showed pupils a cartoon of the Prophet Mohamed fears for his life, his father has said (Photo: Danny Lawson/PA) please log in to view this image By Will Hazell Education Correspondent March 29, 2021 5:41 pm(Updated 6:43 pm) A teacher who showed pupils a cartoon of the Prophet Mohamed in a religious studies class is in fear of his life, his father has said. The teacher, who is not being named, believes he will never be able to return to Batley Grammar School after it was hit by protests last week over the use of the cartoon. The news came as a former head of Ofsted told i that if the protests continue, an exclusion zone should be set up outside the West Yorkshire school to protect pupils and staff from intimidation. i's education newsletter: news and analysis as schools try to return to normal After the protests erupted on Thursday, the teacher was suspended by the school pending an investigation and is now in hiding. His father told MailOnline: “My son keeps breaking down crying and says that it’s all over for him. “He is worried that he and his family are all going to be killed. “He knows that he’s not going to be able to return to work or live in Batley. It’s just going to be too dangerous for him and his family. “Look what happened to the teacher in France who was killed for doing the same thing.” The father criticised the school for its handling of the affair. “The school has thrown my son under a bus,” he said. “The lesson that he delivered in which the picture of the Prophet Mohamed was shown was part of the curriculum, it had been approved by the school. Other teachers have done exactly the same thing.” Many Muslims consider depictions of Mohamed to be blasphemous, and Batley Grammar has apologised for the “inappropriate” use of the cartoon. However, the Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick has said that schools should be able to “appropriately show images” of Mohamed. On Monday, the former chief inspector of Ofsted Sir Michael Wilshaw told i that a “firm line” had to be taken to defend free speech. Sir Michael said: “There’s no excuse for the sort of demonstrations we’ve seen outside the school. It does raise a whole issue of the sort of society we are and the value that we put on free speech. People need to protect that.” Batley Grammar has now broken up for Easter, but on the last day of term pupils were asked to learn remotely from home rather than having to walk through the protestors. Sir Michael said that if the protests were to resume after the holiday, an exclusion zone should be set up to keep demonstrators away from the school. A similar move was used in 2019 to protect a primary school in Birmingham which was hit by protests against its teaching of LGBTQ+ relationships. please log in to view this image Read More School rape culture: Ex-Ofsted chief says schools have swept sexual assault claims ‘under the carpet’ Commenting on protests outside schools, Sir Michael said: “It intimidates both children and staff. What it does – and I’ve had experience of this – is encourages the more radical, the more extreme elements in the community to come from all over the country to demonstrate, and that’s not a good thing.” He said the latest protests reminded him of the ‘Trojan Horse’ affair – an alleged plot by Muslim hardliners to take over schools in Birmingham in 2014. “I was involved in that and saw at first hand the aggression that was on show outside those schools and against Ofsted, so I’ve experienced it at first hand.” Sir Michael said that while the Batley Grammar teacher would have been “well-advised to stay clear” of using the cartoon, people had to accept the UK was a “socially liberal, diverse country where people value free speech”. “I’m a Catholic, I remember being slightly offended by The Life of Brian or Jesus Christ Superstar,” he said. “But not to the point to demonstrate outside the theatre.”
Petition in support of the Batley teacher and free speech: https://www.change.org/p/batley-grammar-school-keep-mr-denville-at-batley-grammar-school
please log in to view this image Nara Hodge @Nara_Hodge Has the Prime Minister and Home Secretary spoken out against this utterly unacceptable, deeply wrong hounding of a teacher in a free western democracy with no blasphemy laws? Why should he fear for his life? The silence on this from certain quarters has been deafening. Quote Tweet please log in to view this image Daily Mail U.K. @DailyMailUK · Mar 30 'I fear I will be murdered': Blasphemy row RE teacher tells father from hiding he can never return to old life https://trib.al/EFuf4ps please log in to view this image 8
at least the uk government can be criticised please log in to view this image Blair McDougall @blairmcdougall You tell the media about the use of rape in the Chinese Government’s Uyghur camps. You then get a FaceTime call from your sister’s phone. And it isn’t her face that appears but this police officer. 1/2 please log in to view this image He tells you “You must bear in mind that all your family and relatives are with us. You must think very carefully about that fact.” Like something from a horror movie.
Nandy Insists UK is Institutionally Racist, Despite Report When asked on Sky News this morning if she accepts the idea that while there is some overt racism in the UK, that does not mean there is institutional racism. It’s fair to say she was unimpressed by the research… “I just think that would be an extraordinary finding, if that is, in fact, what the report says.” “There is an institutional problem that has been widely recognised by the head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission and by successive governments as well.” “What would be a real shame and roll back progress is if today, we ended up in a situation where the government is seeking to downplay or deny the extent of the problem rather than doing what it should be doing, which is getting on the front foot and tackling it.” So keen to say Britain is racist, Nandy is dismissing the findings of a report that stresses the complexity of the issue. Not everything is black and white…
Nandy's antisemitic party calls the rest of Britain racist is the headline you are scrambling around for
What's all this race report about? What's the point in it all, we know reports just get swept under the carpet and forgot about. Of course theres racism in britain ffs. We have a Labour party guilty of anti semitism, we have a prime minister who describes black people as picanninies with water melon smiles. Sweet jesus, what a waste of time
The irony of Doreen Lawrence's position, that the Govt report will encourage white racist attacks, is that I cannot think of one white gang attack on a black victim since Stephen Lawrence was tragically murdered in 1993. Yet black youths are being killed by other black youths every week and people like Doreen ignore it.
