Defend free speech or all our liberties are at risk
by Laurence Fox, TCW:
LAST Friday marked a sorry anniversary on Britain’s road to the eradication of free speech.
On March 25, 2021, a teacher at Batley Grammar School was suspended, and shortly after fled with his wife and young children into hiding, after an angry mob descended upon the school demanding his immediate removal. His offence was to show a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad as part of a discussion on blasphemy in a religious studies class.
This cartoon had been shown before. But this time the reaction was incendiary. The protests broke up only after the teacher’s suspension was announced.
The teacher fled after his picture was posted online by a charity called Purpose of Life. A ‘charity’ which states that ‘We are all one family, irrespective of race, religion, colour, etc. Purpose of Life believes no one has superiority over another, except through piety and good actions’ but which labelled the teacher a terrorist.
The death threats that prompted the teacher to flee came just six months after Samuel Paty was beheaded in the suburbs of Paris showing the same cartoon to his pupils.
The teacher at Batley Grammar remains in hiding today. I was fortunate enough to speak with him personally and listen to him describe what this enormous upheaval had had on his life. It was a harrowing conversation.
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