Gavin Williamson has condemned the death threats made against a teacher who was suspended for allegedly showing a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed in a religious studies lesson on blasphemy.
Dozens of furious Muslim parents protested outside the historic Batley Grammar School in West Yorkshire for seven hours on Thursday and chanted ‘shame on you’ as they called for the teacher’s removal.
A West Yorkshire Police officer read out a grovelling apology to mothers and fathers from headteacher Gary Kibble, but this provoked even more fury from those gathered as they called the teacher a ‘danger’.
Parents claimed that the teacher, who the school have not named, showed students a cartoon of the Prophet during a religious education class – and had predicted he would face a controversial reaction.
In posts to Facebook, the teacher is said to have accepted that pupils at the co-educational free school would tell their parents about the image before then displaying the cartoon to the class.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has now condemned the death threats made against the teacher.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: ‘It is never acceptable to threaten or intimidate teachers. We encourage dialogue between parents and schools when issues emerge.
‘However, the nature of protest we have seen, including issuing threats and in violation of coronavirus restrictions are completely unacceptable and must be brought to an end.
‘Schools are free to include a full range of issues, ideas and materials in their curriculum, including where they are challenging or controversial, subject to their obligations to ensure political balance.
‘They must balance this with the need to promote respect and tolerance between people of different faiths and beliefs, including in deciding which materials to use in the classroom.’
Former Conservative Cabinet Minister Sajid Javid also condemned the backlash, writing: ‘In this country we are free to peacefully follow, preach or query any religion or none. These are hard-won freedoms that must be upheld by all public institutions. Reports of intimidation in Batley set a deeply unsettling and potentially dangerous precedent.
‘President Macron rightly warned about intolerant ”separatism” two weeks before Samuel Paty was murdered. We cannot afford to wait for another tragedy to tackle extremism and reaffirm our values, as I argued recently.’
Police descend on Batley Grammar School in West Yorkshire on Thursday as dozens of furious Muslim parents protest outside
Mufti Mohammed Amin Pandor, a local Muslim scholar, told the crowd in Batley that the teacher has been suspended
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has now condemned the death threats made against the teacher. A Department for Education spokesperson said: ‘It is never acceptable to threaten or intimidate teachers. We encourage dialogue between parents and schools when issues emerge’
The protests in Batley came after a teacher allegedly showed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad during an RE lesson
Batley Grammar School headteacher Gary Kibble, pictured, has since apologised for the ‘inappropriate’ resource
An angry crowd had first gathered outside the grammar school at 7.30am on Thursday, causing the establishment to delay its opening and tell pupils to stay home amid chaotic scenes at the gates.
The parents were still protesting at lunchtime, as police began threatening them with Covid-19 fines and shut a road in both directions. Police later said there were no arrests or fines issued.
It took until 2.30pm for the demonstration to be cleared by police, a spokesperson for West Yorkshire Police confirmed. MailOnline has asked the school a series of questions, including about what images were shown.
Muslim leader Mohammad Sajad Hussain, founder of Batley-based charity Purpose Of Life, said he was ‘deeply hurt’ by the ‘insulting caricatures of our beloved Prophet Mohammed’ in an open letter. He said the charity is unwilling to work with or promote the school until the teacher is ‘permanently removed’.
Dr Abdul Shaikh, an academic in Batley and Muslim activist, said he heard about the incident on social media on Wednesday night.
Speaking to the PA news agency, he said: ‘I was shocked like many Muslims in the town that Muslim school children’s religious sensitivities were completely ignored by the school teacher who decided to show an offensive image that lampooned the noble Prophet Mohammed.
‘Every Muslim around the world holds the Prophet in the highest esteem. I feel that the school should be allowed to complete their investigation in due course and find a fair and adequate solution that satisfies first and foremost Muslim pupils, their parents and the wider Muslim community in Batley.
‘This situation should not be allowed to happen again for the sake of community cohesion in the area.’
Qari Asim, a senior imam at the Makkah Mosque in Leeds, said: ‘I sympathise with the parents and pupils because sadly, this is not the first time we have seen offensive images of Prophet Mohammed being used.
‘People have a right to express their concerns and hurt but protests can’t always achieve what can be achieved through constructive dialogue – fair investigation by the school, in consultation with the parents, should be allowed to take place.
‘We do not want to fan the flames of Islamophobia and provoke hatred or division.’
And Mohammed Shafiq, CEO of the Ramadhan Foundation, condemned the teacher ‘in the strongest terms’ for not considering the ‘hurt’ he would cause by showing a drawing to children in a religious studies lesson.
He said: ‘The World knows the love and respect we have for our Prophet and our hearts are pained tonight to know a teacher working with 70% Muslim pupils didn’t consider the hurt this would cause.
‘We understand the anger parents have been feeling and as we know this is not the first time under the cloak of freedom of speech our faith is being attacked.
‘We love the Prophet Muhammad PBUH more than own lives and this incident has happened which will now be hijacked by those who have an interest in perpetuating an image of Muslims, we will not allow these attacks to go unanswered.’
He added: ‘It is alarming that the Department of Education chose to amplify those divisions by attacking the parents and pupils rather than looking how we can come together to have a respectful discussion and seek an end to this issue.’
Mr Kibble, headteacher of the school founded in 1612 by the Reverend William Lee, said the RE teacher has been suspended, and went on to issue a ‘sincere’ and ‘unequivocal’ apology. He called the image ‘totally inappropriate’ and said the school had ‘immediately withdrawn teaching on this part of the course’.
In a televised statement, he added: ‘It is important for children to learn about faiths and beliefs, but this must be done in a respectful, sensitive way. The school is working closely with our governing body and community leaders to help us resolve this situation, and we continue to do so.’
The RE teacher, who lives with his partner a short distance from the school, was not home today and his car was not parked at the property.
A neighbour told MailOnline: ‘He’s a nice man. I see him go off to school, but not today or the day before.’
He was described by another neighbour as a ‘local lad’ who studied close to home and decided to teach in the area he was born and raised.
The neighbour said: ‘He’s a good, honest Yorkshire lad. Likes his rugby and always had a smile for us.’
The teacher’s parents were also not at home.
The National Secular Society branded the protest as an ‘attempt to impose an Islamic blasphemy taboo on a school’. Stephen Evans, its chief executive, said: ‘Teachers must have a reasonable degree of freedom to explore sensitive subjects and enable students to think critically about them.
‘And the school’s weak response will fuel a climate of censorship, which is brought on by attempts to force society as a whole to accommodate unreasonable and reactionary religious views.’
Today’s protest comes five months after history teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded on the street near his school in a Paris suburb by an Islamic extremist last October after showing Prophet Muhammad cartoons to his students.
The killing shocked the country and led to a fresh debate about freedom of speech and the integration of France’s large Muslim population. It also brought back memories of a wave of Islamist violence that started with the Charlie Hebdo massacre, sparked by the same cartoons in the satirical magazine in 2015 when gunmen killed 12 people.
Angry parents gather to protest outside Batley Grammar School in West Yorkshire following the incident in an RE lesson
Batley Grammar School had to delay its opening and told pupils to stay at home amid chaotic scenes at its gates yesterday morning
Mufti Mohammed Amin Pandor, a local Muslim scholar, told the crowd that the teacher had been suspended, which was later confirmed by the school, where almost three-quarters of pupils are from minority ethnic groups.
Muslims make up 41 per cent of the population in Batley, a historic market and mill town in the Kirkless region which was the constituency of Labour MP Jo Cox who was murdered by a far-Right extremist in June 2016.
The latest RE syllabus for the Calderdale, Kirklees and Leeds region, valid from 2019 to 2024, states that pupils should be able to ‘give reasons why visual representation of God and the prophets is forbidden – haram – in Islam’ by the end of key stage two – but does not specifically state whether teachers should show any of these images.
National guidance from the Department for Education also does not specifically address cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, but says RE must be taught according to ‘either the locally agreed syllabus or in accordance with the school’s designated religion or religious denomination, or in certain cases the trust deed relating to the school.’
Alumni from the school, which serves Halal-approved food in the canteen, include Innocent Smoothies founder Richard Reed, Ginetta Cars owner Lawrence Tomlinson and prominent 18th century theologian Joseph Priestley.
Mr Kibble wrote in a letter to parents: ‘The school would like to thank the parents who contacted us on Monday, March 22 highlighting concerns with a resource used in an RS [religious studies] lesson that day.
‘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.’
He added that the school had taken ‘immediate action’ to investigate what had happened, including the removal of the resource from materials and the suspension of that lesson content from the scheme of work.
Mr Kibble continued: ‘As an additional precaution, we will undertake a formal review of the RS curriculum to ensure no other resource or statement is inappropriate and take appropriate action as needed.’
The headteacher, who is thought to have been in his role at the school for three years, also told how staff were now investigating the matter ‘using formal processes and we are grateful for the support of the local authority’.
With parents gathering outside the school, it sent them all a text message to say: ‘Due to the disturbance outside of school, if your child has not already set off please keep them at home as school will be starting at 10am.’
A parent speaks to a police officer outside Batley Grammar School in West Yorkshire yesterday morning after the incident
Mufti Mohammed Amin Pandor, a local Muslim scholar, speaks to the crowd gathered outside Batley Grammar School
Later in a statement to ITV News, Mr Kibble said: ‘The school unequivocally apologises for using a totally inappropriate image in a religious studies lesson. It should not have been used.
‘The member of staff has also relayed their sincere apologies. We have immediately withdrawn teaching on this part of the course, and we are revising how we go forward with the support of all communities represented in our school.
‘It is important for children to learn about faiths and beliefs, but this must be done in a respectful, sensitive way.
‘The member of staff has been suspended pending an independent formal investigation. The school is working closely with our governing body and community leaders to help us resolve this situation, and we continue to do so.
‘I know many of you will have questions but we are undertaking a formal process now and it is therefore very difficult for us to be able to answer any of those questions without jeopardising that, but we hope that we can reach a swift conclusion moving forward.’
The protesters had been demanding the resignation of the teacher, with organisers asking anyone attending to do so in their vehicle. Officers were guarding all school entrances but the protest appeared to be peaceful.
Reacting to the images being shown, Mohammad Salad Hussain, founder of the Batley-based Muslim charity Purpose of Life, said: ‘We as Muslims love our beloved Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) even more than our parents. I would never dream of offending anyone’s loved ones, so how can this behaviour be acceptable to any sane mind?
‘Currently we are working around the clock helping the Rohingya Muslims who have suffered again greatly with a mass fire, who initially suffered – murdered, raped, burnt alive – for purely being Muslim and this will only increase if we allow this kind of behaviour.
Mufti Mohammed Amin Pandor tells the crowd outside the school in West Yorkshire that he has been speaking to staff
Mufti Mohammed Amin Pandor speaks to the crowd of parents who gathered to protest outside Batley Grammar School
Police block the road leading to the school after parents gathered outside Batley Grammar School Thurssday morning
Parents began gathering at 7.30am outside the co-educational free school in West Yorkshire and could be heard chanting
Police positioned outside the school gates amid the demonstrations taking place at Batley Grammar School Thursday morning
‘We at Purpose of Life charity and many Muslims do what we do purely because of our love for Allah SWT and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). This is what needs to be taught at schools.’
In a video filmed by the Huddersfield Examiner, Mufti Mohammed Amin Pandor, a local prominent Muslim scholar who is director of the Peace Institute, told the crowd outside this morning: ‘What has happened in the school, we are appalled.
‘Look at what we do as a community, and you’ll understand our stance. What has happened is totally unacceptable and we have made sure that the school understands that. The school is preparing a statement.
‘So our discussion is they prepared a statement and we weren’t happy with the statement, so we said no, the statement needs to be worded in this way. Some people think I tried to stop you guys from coming.
‘I don’t know where that information is from, so that’s between whoever has spread that rumour and Allah. So that’s nothing to do with me. This is a democratic country, you can protest. It’s your right to protest.
‘Somebody called me last night and said there’s a protest for tomorrow, what should we do? I said we, as a group, have got a different stance, we want to work with the school. But if anyone wants to exercise their democratic right, you are here. So let’s move on. So what’s happening?
‘The school is going to issue an apology, issue a statement. 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.
‘The teacher has been suspended, the teacher has been suspended. Now then, you cannot sack him. You guys are professional, you know you can’t just dismiss someone like that, they have due process.
‘So he’s been suspended, OK, he’s been suspended. Now we’ve asked for an investigation, an investigation to be independent, and we have asked also that some of us get onto the investigation panel.
‘So this is what we’ve asked for. So whether they do it or not, we can’t force them, but they’re investigating. And then we’re going to work with the school to make sure in future things like this don’t happen.’
Commenting on the situation, a woman in her 30s with a child at the school said: ‘We are continuing to wait outside the school to try and speak to the headteacher, we want to hear what he has to say.
‘He needs to come out, explain what happened, apologise for it and tell us how he will make sure nothing like this ever happens again.
‘We feel like he’s hiding away and that’s not good enough, he needs to show his face. A lot of us have questions for him about how this ever happened in the first place, something clearly went very wrong.
‘This image is so offensive to us and, in my opinion, there is no way it could have been part of the curriculum. What happened is very dangerous and we need answers.’
‘I am a teacher’: People gather at the Place de la Republique in Paris to pay tribute to Samuel Paty on October 18, 2020
People hold a photo of Samuel Paty during a memorial march for him in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine on October 20, 2020
But Dr Paul Stott, associate fellow at the Henry Jackson Society think tank, told MailOnline: ‘Secondary schools have a duty to introduce pupils to contentious ideas and debates, as part of a process of teaching children how, rather than what, to think.
Batley Grammar School headteacher Gary Kibble wrote to parents to confirm the issues were being investigated
‘Schools in the UK must not concede policy to angry mobs at the school gates or to so-called community leaders.
‘The school’s censorious approach appears to be the exact opposite of the approach in France, where demands to sanitise classroom discussions by Islamist campaigners were resolutely rejected by the government, following the hideous murder of teacher Samuel Paty.’
The Free Speech Union said it stands ‘in solidarity with the teacher at Batley Grammar who has been suspended at the behest of a censorious religious mob’.
Toby Young, its director general, said he is writing to the headteacher to object, copying in Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, and to the local Chief Constable asking him to make sure the teacher is ‘protected from intimidation’.
He told MailOnline: ‘Schools should be teaching children about the importance of free speech and for the headteacher to give in immediately to the demands of an outrage mob – apologising to them and suspending the teacher concerned – sets a very bad example. No one has the right not to be offended.’
Carole Pattison, cabinet member for learning at Kirkless Council, told MailOnline: ‘Batley Grammar is an academy school so the council has a very limited role in its running but we are aware of issues raised by parents this week.
‘We are pleased to see that the school has taken swift action to resolve the issues alongside the local community. They have apologised, taken immediate action on teaching materials and they are reviewing the relevant processes.’
A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said at about midday: ‘We are aware of a small demonstration at the school, which is still ongoing. Local neighbourhood officers are in attendance.’
Police cordoned off Carlinghow Hill in both directions and the 213 bus service was diverted via Batley Field Hill.
Later, the force spokesman added: ‘The demonstration has now ended. We closed the road for a short time. No arrests or FPNs (Fixed Penalty Notices) issued.’
The school, which has 990 pupils, was rated ‘good’ in its last Ofsted inspection. It used to be an all-boys school until girls were admitted into its sixth form in 1988 and it then became fully co-educational in 1996.
** Are you a parent of a child at Batley Grammar School? Please email: [email protected] **
