Report: Teachers ‘Self-Censoring’ and Bullied by ‘De Facto Blasphemy’ Codes

Muslim protesters at Batley Grammar School West Yorkshire on March 26, 2021. PA Media/Danny Lawson

Teachers are “self-censoring” to avoid going into hiding after offending Muslims, according to research, calling it a “de-facto blasphemy” code.

Research from the think tank Policy Exchange has found over half of all teachers said they would not use an image of Muhammad in the classroom.

The report noted the Batley Grammar School incident, where a teacher and his family, including four small children, were forced into hiding and received death threats, after he showed a class a picture of the prophet Muhammad, has “clearly scared the teaching profession.”

Policy Exchange did a survey with YouGov involving over 1,000 and teachers found that, since the Batley Grammar School protests, 16 percent of British teachers say they have self-censored to avoid offence on religious grounds.

That proportion was higher for teachers of certain subjects, including almost a fifth of all English teachers and art teachers at 19 percent.

Asked if the Batley Grammar School protests have influenced whether or not they would personally use an image of the prophet Muhammad in a lesson, over half of all teachers (55 percent) said they wouldn’t.

Half of the teachers said there would be a risk to their safety if protests similar to the ones which sprang up outside the school gates in Batley occurred, with one in five saying there would be a “very big risk.”

The region with the highest percentage of teachers suggesting there would be a “very big risk” was Yorkshire and the Humber, where the Batley incident took place, at 33 percent.

The Department for Education did not commission its own inquiry, with some arguing the government had ceded too much power to “outraged Muslim ‘community leaders.”

‘Blasphemy’

The Batley Grammar School protests are one of a number of “blasphemy”-related incidents that have occurred in Britain since the author Salmon Rushdie was issued a fatwa in 1989, which the report said, “marked the start of a new kind of blasphemy code, imposed not by law but by intimidation and the threat of violence.”

The report also noted another case, this time in Wakefield, when West Yorkshire Police became involved after a Year 10 boy, who was believed to be autistic, brought a copy of Islam’s holy book to Kettlethorpe High School as part of a dare last week, and its cover was slightly torn while smears of dirt were found on some pages.

At a subsequent meeting at the local Jamia Masjid Swafia mosque called to address the incident, the boy’s mother pleaded her son’s case to a panel that included imans, the school’s headmaster and a senior police officer.

Off-Limits

Report author Damon L. Perry said that “teachers must not feel the need to self-censor out of fear. Headteachers, who set school policy, should not be bullied by de facto blasphemy codes.”

“It is clear from this survey, however, that images of Muhammad are self-consciously off-limits to the majority of teachers of all subjects in Britain,” he added.

The report said that teachers would benefit from “firm” statutory national guidance from the government that makes clear that no one has the right not to be offended.

Former education secretary Nadim Zahawi said: “The polling for Policy Exchange shows that one in ten teachers are less likely to show an image of the Prophet Muhammad in lessons as a result of the Batley Grammar School protests. Our teachers, and their pupils, deserve better than this.

“We owe it to them to support them to provide a secure environment where open, honest and free discussion is not only permitted, but actively encouraged.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We have been clear that it is never acceptable to threaten or intimidate teachers.

“All schools are required to promote our shared fundamental British values, including individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance.

“Teachers can cover a full range of issues, ideas and materials in their curriculum, including where they are challenging or controversial, subject to their obligations to ensure political balance.”

PA Media contributed to this report.