"A bad result for Labour in Thursday’s by-election in Batley and Spen could represent the point of no return for Keir Starmer’s electoral prospects. This campaign has been racked with tension and chaos yet the two main candidates have shamefully managed to avoid what should have been the most evident issue in the campaign."

Political commentator Emma Webb argues Labour and the Conservatives should be ashamed of their silence over the teacher in Batley who was forced into hiding over "blasphemy".

"Of the mammoth 16 candidates, both Labour’s Kim Leadbeater and the Conservative’s Ryan Stephenson have shied away from taking any meaningful stance on the disgraceful ongoing events in Batley.
In March, a teacher at Batley Grammar School – who I won’t name for security reasons – showed a cartoon of Mohammed as part of a religious studies lesson on blasphemy. In the process, he taught the entire country a lesson – namely, that in modern Britain blasphemy can lose you your career and possibly your life.

An offended mob descended on the school, demanding his resignation. One charity penned a letter, describing the “insulting caricatures” as “terrorism to Islam and Muslims around the world” and called his behaviour “sadistic”. Demanding his permanent removal, they also doxxed him – releasing his personal information to the public. One particularly sinister Facebook post read: “It is imperative that all of us turn up to demand the resignation of this teacher as an absolute minimum and fulfil our duty of defending the honour of RasoolAllah.”

The headmaster capitulated, throwing the teacher under the bus by issuing a grovelling and unequivocal apology for the “totally inappropriate image”, and suspended him pending an investigation.

Around five months earlier, a French middle school teacher, Samuel Paty, showed his students cartoons of the prophet Mohammed from the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo as part of a civics lesson about freedom of speech. He was decapitated by an Islamist terrorist, murdered just as the Islamists had murdered the cartoon’s original creators in 2015, when a gunman stormed their offices killing 12 people.

Paty was killed after a similar storm was whipped up against him. Unsurprisingly the Batley teacher was forced into hiding with his young family, and as far as I am aware remains under police protection. Even his close family members reportedly don’t know his location.

The school’s investigation recently found that he was not at fault and reinstated him. According to his father the lesson was part of the curriculum, approved by the school, and taught by other teachers as well. But it’s too late. He can’t come back to work because he fears for his and his family’s lives. CCTV was installed after men were seen turning up at his home.

Those offended used the language of safety and wellbeing. They spoke of a “hostile atmosphere” created by the cartoons. That the teacher’s behaviour was “threatening and provocative”. This is a familiar distortion. After Paty was murdered, leaders of Muslim countries like Pakistan and Turkey boycotted French goods, accused France of attacking Islam, and protesters outside the French embassy in London shouted chants demanding respect for their religion. France and Paty were painted not as victims, but as aggressors.

One extremism expert noted this week that the definition of a crybully is “a person who self-righteously harasses or intimidates others while playing the victim”.

This is upside down and back to front. Evidently, it was the teacher whose safety was in peril. If any hostile environment was created, it was created by those trying to hound him out."

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