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Protests against teachers: "It is never acceptable to intimidate teachers"
Photo: Christopher Furlong / Getty Images
For the second day in a row, parents have stood in front of a school in Batley, West Yorkshire, UK.
They express their displeasure with a teacher who showed the students drawings of the Islamic prophet Mohammed earlier this week.
Now the Ministry of Education reacted - and condemned the protests.
"It is never acceptable to intimidate or threaten teachers," said a ministry spokesman.
The school had already apologized for the students seeing "totally inappropriate" material and suspended the teacher, according to various British media reports, such as the BBC and the Guardian.
According to reports, they are caricatures from the French satirical magazine "Charlie Hebdo".
According to the parents, this is an attack on Islam, which rejects images of Mohammed.
Many of the students at Batley Grammar School come from families of Muslim faith.
An independent investigation into the incidents has been initiated.
A petition has since been launched to bring the teacher back to school.
"The kind of protests that we have seen, with threats and disregard of the corona restrictions, are completely unacceptable and must stop," said the Ministry of Education.
Schools have the right to cover a wide variety of materials and views on controversial topics in the classroom.
However, both political balance and respect for people of different faiths must be observed.
In October, 47-year-old teacher Samuel Paty was killed in France after showing caricatures of Mohammed in a class on freedom of expression.
On October 16, an 18-year-old man beheaded the teacher near his school in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.
The perpetrator was shot dead by the police after the fatal attack.
The attack had caused horror beyond France's borders.
President Emmanuel Macron then defended the showing of Mohammed cartoons, which led to protests in Muslim countries and calls for boycotts against France.
kha / dpa