Sparking

Oh goody another Motoon uproar. That should be enlightening.

A teacher who showed pupils an “inappropriate” cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad – sparking protests outside a school – has been suspended.

Classic BBC – it always does this, as does the Guardian. The teacher did not “spark” protests outside the school; some people decided to protest outside the school. The BBC loves to sneak the blame in that way.

The image depicting the founder of Islam was used in a lesson at Batley Grammar School on Monday.

Head teacher Gary Kibble apologised “unequivocally”, adding the member of staff had “given their most sincere apologies” and been suspended pending an investigation.

“We have immediately withdrawn teaching on this part of the course and we are reviewing how we go forward with the support of all the communities represented in our school,” he said.

“It is important for children to learn about faiths and beliefs, but this must be done in a sensitive way.”

Must it though? Maybe it should be done in a brisk and rational way. School isn’t church or mosque, and it’s not self-evident that schools have to let churches and mosques tell them what they can teach and how they can teach it.

Parts of the Koran are taken to mean that neither Allah nor Muhammad can be captured in an image by human hand and any attempt to do so is seen as an insult.

Yes and parts of the bible are taken to mean that uppity women should be stoned to death; what’s your point? Schools can’t and shouldn’t shape their teaching according to what various holy books say.

One of the protesters, a local resident who gave his name as Abdullah, said the cartoon offended “the whole Muslim community”.

Abdullah, who told the BBC he was not a parent but had relatives at the school, said up to 100 people, including pupils, had taken part in the protest.

“This is a time when we can’t stay quiet, we need to stand up and let them know, the head teacher, the school and the governing body, that this is not something light. There’s a line you can’t cross,” he said.

There are lots of lines you can’t cross, and this isn’t one of them.

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