Batley Grammar School and the Absence of Goodwill

History stood still yesterday, Friday, 26th March. At around 1pm, I made my first ever phone-in contribution to the Jeremy Vine programme on BBC Radio 2. It lasted about five minutes, but I hope I had some impact. In fact, no-one I know has commented upon it, and, in all probability, no-one I know even heard it. It doesn't matter. What is of importance is the topic I phoned about: the controversy about an image of the Prophet Mohammed shown during a lesson at Batley Grammar School. I phoned about this topic because, as I said to Jeremy Vine, I was a Religious Education (RE) Co-ordinator in a West London primary school for 11 years, and taught many pupils of different faiths: Christian, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist and, of course, Muslims. Respectfully, I corrected Vine on one misapprehension common to many in the media, which is the belief that all Muslims oppose all images of the Prophet. This is true for Sunni Muslims, but not Shias. As Wikipedia says:

  "Most Sunni Muslims believe that visual depictions of all the prophets of Islam should be prohibited[19] and are particularly averse to visual representations of Muhammad.[20] The key concern is that the use of images can encourage idolatry.[21] In Shia Islam, however, images of Muhammad are quite common nowadays, even though Shia scholars historically were against such depictions.[20][22] Still, many Muslims who take a stricter view of the supplemental traditions will sometimes challenge any depiction of Muhammad, including those created and published by non-Muslims"

The picture above depicts the death of Mohammed. At the risk of seeming flippant, I would be interested to see how the pickets outside Batley Grammar School would react if they saw it. Sunnis and Shias have serious differences on many issues and this could well be one of them. The main reason why I phoned the Jeremy Vine programme was that I, while teaching, was involved in an incident broadly similar to that which has happened at Batley Grammar School. One year, about 17 years ago, I was gathering material for a corridor R.E. display. As part of the display, I thought it a good idea to include a symbol from the Koran. Instead of photocopying a page directly from the Muslim holy book, I photocopied an image, with explanatory text, from a text book. I put it up as part of the display, thinking it acceptable. I was wrong. Several days after I put up the display, two very nice Year 6 girls, both Muslim, came to see me. They explained that they were not happy at the image being photocopied and displayed. I discussed the matter with them, and they asked their mosque Arabic teacher to draw it by hand for me. I replaced the photocopy with the handwritten copy, and the matter was settled amicably. No angry parents, no calls for my suspension, no ill-will or demonstrations outside the school. I never even discussed the matter with senior management. Tensions have heightened over the years. As we know, people have been murdered over the issue of images of the Prophet. The Charlie Hebdo killings spring to mind, and the wrongly accused French teacher, Samuel Paty. Paty was killed following what has been proven to be lies by a 13-year old schoolgirl. His murder is called to mind when we hear the demands of Muslim parents for the Batley teacher's dismissal. Now, I don't know all the facts about the case at Batley Grammar, and I'm well aware that it's a different matter from the issue I had. But I do think that there could be parallels. I made a mistake in photocopying a text book page, thinking that as it was not from an actual Koran, I had done nothing offensive. It could be that the Batley teacher, as Jeremy Vine said, thought he or she was safe to use the image for a lesson on blasphemy. And Jeremy Vine agreed with me that you can't give a lecture on blasphemy without showing examples of blasphemy. This being the case, the teacher concerned might have made a mistake in not checking whether an image of Mohammed was appropriate or not. But as I found, it's only too easy to make a mistake; I meant no offence by what I did; the Batley Grammar teacher probably felt the same. We know that the teacher is now suspended and in hiding. This is a harsh punishment for what was probably human error - and I speak as a teacher who made a similar mistake. I can only wonder if prompt action by the school management could not have resolved this matter peaceably and without such rancour. Instead, we now have another divisive issue to be dealt with, and one which could spiral out of control. The saddest aspect of the Batley Grammar dispute is that battle lines are being drawn. While the Muslim demonstrators and parents may be implacable in their demands, the extreme Right are seizing upon this issue to stir up Islamophobia. As The Independent says: 

"Far-right groups including Britain First have been capitalising on the row, organising complaints to the headteacher and claiming that British schools are “being made to bow down to Sharia law”." Besides this, a petition has been launched to reinstate the teacher and, according to Yorkshire Live, is gathering thousands of signatures and has garnered moral support for the suspended teacher from Ricky Gervais.

What is needed is for cooler heads on both sides to prevail. The matter must be investigated, the teacher concerned given a chance to explain himself or herself, and a willingness must be shown by both sides to resolve this matter rationally. There have been similar incidents before, and they have been characterised all too often by a distinct lack of goodwill. We owe it to the next generation to show them that other people's points of view are worthy of respect.