We don’t have blasphemy laws any longer in Britain, but let’s face it – we don’t need them. Since the Charlie Hebdo massacre seven years ago, the western world has become wonderfully adept at self-censorship. Anyone foolish enough not to adopt this posture when faced with possibly offending Muslims (notice I didn’t say Islam, Islamists, or any other weasel words?), soon learns as the mob mobilises, aided and abetted by the abject cowardice of those in authority.
Last year, it was a Batley Grammar School teacher who invoked the mob’s ire by showing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in a religious studies lesson on free speech (can you think of anything better to show them?). That teacher was thrown under the bus by a gutless headmaster, Gary Kibble, the Muslim ‘charity’ Purpose of Life, who named him online, and the authorities who have done so little to protect the man and his family, that they remain in hiding to this day.
Instead of out-and-out condemnation for the Muslim bullies and their snivelling apologists, we have seen a wall of silence from those with a voice such as Batley MP Kim Leadbetter, and payment of what is tantamount to protection money. The National Education Union in Kirklees donated £3,000 to the Purpose of Life charity, while the Jo Cox Foundation (of which Leadbetter is an ambassador), also paid £1,000.
Almost a year to the day the Batley teacher went into hiding, unwritten yet palpable blasphemy laws have reared their ugly head once more in Britain. A teacher has again been suspended, this time at Colchester Royal Grammar School, for drinking from a mug with a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed on it.
The cartoons are believed to be from the famous Jesus and Mo series, the author of which goes by the pseudonym Mohammed Jones (for the rather obvious reason that they are quite attached to their head). Not only is the author in hiding, but so is the mug – being as it is pixelated out in any reporting, so as not to offend… – you get my drift.
It’s too early to know how this one will play out. Perhaps a tearful apology and donation to the correct ‘charity’ will suffice, then again perhaps not. If I were a teacher with a young family, I know what I might be tempted to do. Still, this is a dangerous precedent we can ill-afford to be set.
Weasel politicians and lynch mobs aside, we ought to be ashamed of ourselves too. We are all standing idly by, watching these constant destructions of innocent lives, and the concomitant further incursions on freedom of speech, thankful that it isn’t us– that is no recipe for victory.
Leadbetter of course needs to shoulder a fair amount of the blame. In order to appease the voters of her constituency, she was happy to be chased away from the campaign trail, and has not raised the issue of the Batley teacher once. Instead, she hides behind the following defence:
The reason I am not discussing this matter publicly is because I have specifically been asked not to – by the family involved. It is very clear that the teacher and his family do not want to be a matter of public debate on social media.
This is a defence vehemently denied by family friend, Paul Halloran.
As a nation, we’re at a crossroads and we need to make a choice: either capitulate honestly to Islam as many of the great and the good have already proposed, or stand up for free speech – and what better place to start than getting teachers out of hiding?
Still, there are some positive signs coming from the government. Dominic Raab has recently argued for replacing the Human Rights Act with a UK bill of rights, which would be a ‘legal trump card’ for free speech. If Raab is serious, and I hope he is, the first test for any such bill should be a nationwide ‘Draw a Prophet’ day in schools.
We need to stamp this nonsense out once and for all – you don’t get any special treatment, no matter what victim cards you’ve got up your burka. Whether you’re black, female (with or without the cock), gay, disabled or Muslim, or even (horror of horrors) white – there’s one law. If you don’t like it, there are plenty of other (less tolerant) countries to choose from.
In the meantime, I think we need to get ourselves another hashtag – forget #JesuisCharlie, how about #JeSuisMuggedOff?
In my honest opinion, the Laws created by “The Prophet”, were almost exact copies of the Ten Commandments.
He pretty much heard about our Lord, Jesus Christ, and thought, “I could do that, and make myself popular”.
However, he had one major disadvantage, in that he could not turn Water into Wine; so he told his followers that they must never consume alcohol.
Since nobody is allowed to display any representation of Mohammed, how does anybody know the so-called ‘offending’ images are actually a picture of the prophet ? Or are the ‘offended’ simply making it up ?
He’s not a prophet so far as I am concerned; a more correct term would be, ‘the false prophet Mohammed’.
see: Matthew 7, 15-20.
Totally agree with the other post , if you have no idea what Mohammed looks like , how can any drawing etc offend you , that just shows how stupid manipulated your mind is ,
Unfortunately this has been going on for far longer than Charlie Hebdo. Prior to that there was Satanic Verses which resulted in mass book burnings in places like Bradford and the Danish cartoon. It is worth reading Tyranny of Silence by Flemming Rose, who was a commissioning editor at Jyllands-Posten, when the cartoon was published. The dreadful Hate Crime legislation needs to repealed as it used a blasphemy law by default, as was predicted by many who opposed its introduction under Blair.
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