A school in northern England apologized on Thursday and suspended a teacher for showing a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad in class, which sparked a protest movement.
Read also: Belgium: a teacher suspended for showing a caricature of Muhammad
This incident at Batley Grammar School, a public school in West Yorkshire, comes a few months after the October assassination in France of Samuel Paty, a history and geography teacher, targeted by a Chechen Russian radicalized because he he had shown caricatures of the prophet in class.
Islam, in its strict interpretation, prohibits any representation of the Prophet Muhammad.
“
The school apologizes wholeheartedly for the use of a totally inappropriate image in a recent religious studies class.
It shouldn't have been used,
”said manager Gary Kibble.
"
The staff member also sent his most sincere apologies
," he continued, stressing that he had been "
suspended
"Pending an"
independent
"
investigation
.
“
It is important for our children to learn faiths and beliefs, but it must be done in a respectful and sensitive way,
” he adds.
No arrest or verbalization
Videos posted on social networks show about twenty people protesting in front of the school gates, guarded by the police.
Local police, who were called in front of the school around 7:30 am (local and GMT), said they had made no arrests or imposed fines, while protests are banned due to the lockdown in force in the UK. United.
According to the Sky News channel, which quotes a parent of a student, the cartoon was taken from the French satirical weekly
Charlie Hebdo
, which sparked anger in the Muslim world by reposting the images deemed blasphemous last September.
This reissue took place on the occasion of the trial of the January 7, 2015 attack which left 12 people dead at the newspaper's headquarters, the target of death threats for its publications of caricatures of Muhammad.