Batley school protests: Identifying prophet row teacher 'unacceptable'

Sharing the identity of a teacher who showed pupils an "offensive" cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad could result in police action, a watchdog has warned.

Protests were held outside Batley Grammar School, where the staff member was suspended after complaints.

Baroness Kishwer Falkner said making a teacher fear for their safety was "simply unacceptable".

The Equality and Human Rights Commission chair said the school "ought to be trusted" to take action.

"A teacher's identity being shared, making them fear for their safety, is simply unacceptable and could result in enforcement action from the police," she said.

Gary Kibble, head teacher of the West Yorkshire school, said the teacher had "given their most sincere apologies" for the caricature being shown and said an investigation had begun.

Demonstrators, who first gathered outside the grounds on Thursday morning, staged a second protest on Friday but had moved on by mid-afternoon.

Some had demanded the teacher's sacking and accused staff of failing to take the issue seriously.

Baroness Falkner said children's education "should not be disrupted by protests in what has already been a difficult year".

"Schools are places where children learn about ideas, values, difference and respect.

"This sometimes involves exposing them to contentious issues and different views and ideas."

"For schools to meet their legal duty to foster good relations between people from different groups, this should be done in a balanced, respectful and sensitive way."

Speaking on Friday morning, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick called for the "deeply unsettling" scenes outside the school to "come to an end".

He defended the right of teachers to "appropriately" show images of the Prophet Muhammed and said "no-one should be feeling intimidated or threatened as they go into school".

A petition calling for the teacher to be reinstated has received more than 10,000 signatures.

Dr Shazad Amin, deputy chair of MEND, which helps Muslims engage with British media and politics, said its Islamophobia Response Unit had been helping several parents liaise with the school.

He said he saw "no problem" with blasphemy being discussed at the school but said the particular image shown to pupils was "deeply offensive" and "furthered stereotypes and anti-Islamic tropes".

As a result, he said, people in the local community had "a right to feel hurt and a right to feel angry" but called for them to allow the matter to be properly investigated.

He said parents were "fairly positive" about the action taken so far by the school.

Former Conservative Party chairwoman Baroness Warsi said the debate had been hijacked by "extremists on both sides" to fuel a "culture war" at the expense of "kids and their learning".

Labour MP for Batley and Spen, Tracey Brabin, condemned those who "seek to fan the flames of this incident", and said she welcomed the school's apology.

West Yorkshire Police said no arrests had been made and officers remained at the school.

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.

Kirklees Council said Batley Grammar is an academy school so the authority only has a "very limited role" in its running, but it praised staff for taking "swift action".

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