Islam and cartoons: fury in West Yorkshire

“It is now more than 32 years since the fatwa against Salman Rushdie over his allegedly blasphemous depiction of Muhammad in The Satanic Verses,” said Matthew d’Ancona on Tortoise-Media. And it seems “we are no closer to resolving the frictions between Islam and liberalism”. Last week, Batley Grammar School in West Yorkshire was besieged by angry Muslim protesters, following reports that a teacher had used an insulting caricature of the Prophet Muhammad in a religious education class about blasphemy, reportedly for year nine pupils (aged 13-14). In the face of the protests, the head teacher, Gary Kibble, “unequivocally” apologised for the use of the cartoon, and said that the teacher had been suspended pending an investigation. How pathetic that a school should have capitulated on such a crucial principle: the right, in a free society, to discuss our religions and beliefs, to analyse them, to satirise them.

“This is not about freedom of expression,” said Dr Abdullah Sahin on Sky News. The story is about what’s appropriate to show young pupils, in a school with a large number of Muslim pupils. “There is no way” that the teacher would not have known that such a cartoon – reportedly one with Muhammad’s turban rendered as a bomb – would be “controversial and offensive to Muslims”. The head was right to apologise. Of course we should all show respect, said Matthew Syed in The Sunday Times. But we also have to observe due process. The protesters have called for the teacher to be sacked, without waiting for the investigation. He has been called a racist and a terrorist, and – having been named by an Islamic charity online – fled his home, under police protection. No wonder schools such as Batley have decided that robust debate on Islam, though permitted by the curriculum, is just too dangerous. “This, ultimately, is where appeasement takes us.”

The teacher will be “hoping to avoid the fate of Samuel Paty”, the teacher beheaded in France over a similar case last year, said Nick Timothy in The Daily Telegraph. The threats against him have been fairly explicit. One local imam warned that he had to be reined in, “otherwise we are not responsible for the actions of some individuals”. This issue really ought to be crystal clear: the intimidation of teachers, and “the threat of violence if society does not accept a de facto blasphemy law”, are entirely unacceptable. Of course we all have a right – a duty – to challenge bigotry, said Kenan Malik in The Observer. But taking offence is not the same as suffering racism. “No one has a right not to be offended.” If we forget that, then we forget what it means “to live in a plural society”.