Demonstranter protesterer utenfor Batley Grammar School den 26. mars 2021. Stillbilde: The Telegraph / YouTube.

Batley Grammar Schools håndtering av sinte muslimers protest mot en lærer som hadde vist klassen en Muhammed-karikatur, er en nedslående og skamfull kapitulasjon, mener Brendan O’Neill.

Ved å suspendere læreren og be om unnskyldning for fremvisningen av karikaturen, har skolen gitt etter for intolerante religiøse ekstremister, og med det vist en ekstraordinær feighet, skriver han i The Spectator.

Alt ved denne historien stinker, mener O’Neill, som har merket seg at en gruppe unge menn hadde samlet seg foran skolen tidlig om morgenen.

What happened next was staggering, even by the standards of today’s yellow-bellied culture of self-censorship. Batley Grammar’s headmaster, Gary Kibble, suspended the teacher — pending an investigation — and issued a ‘sincere’ and ‘unequivocal’ apology for the ‘totally inappropriate’ display of the Muhammad image. The school also put on hold the part of the religious-studies course in which the Muhammad incident occurred. And it is being reported this morning that the school has switched to remote learning, telling teachers and kids to stay home.

Denne selvpiskingen er skandaløs, fastslår artikkelforfatteren. Ikke desto mindre møter skolens håndtering bifall på venstresiden:

Bizarrely — but also predictably — the school has been cheered on by so-called progressives. Tracey Brabin, the Labour MP for Batley, says she is glad the school has recognised ‘the upset and offence’ it has caused and has now ‘apologised for the offence caused’. Well done for repenting — that’s effectively what Brabin is saying.

Hva skal dette betyr? spør O’Neill. Skal det ikke lenger være tillatt å tale fritt om islam? Skal man straffe enhver som forbryter seg mot denne regelen?

Spectator-skribenten lyder ikke helt overbevisende når han prøver å sette skapet på plass:

Britain is not an Islamic country. We do not live under Sharia law. It might be a punishable offence in Islamic nations to make or display an image of Muhammad, but it isn’t here. So what is going on?

Tja, kanskje sharia i praksis gjelder i Storbritannia likevel?

O’Neill er mer på sporet når han ser for seg konsekvensene av Batley Grammars underkastelse. Islamistene vil få blod på tann:

It will embolden those who believe they have the right to bully and silence anyone who ‘disrespects’ Islam. Moral cowardice is the fuel of contemporary censorship. It is the negative energy on which the zealous crusaders for speech-control feast and get fat.

Resultatet er uunngåelig at sensuren vil bli enda hardere. Islamistene straffer én, Samuel Paty, og oppdrar hundre:

The teacher has reportedly been given police protection. That isn’t surprising given that, just a few months ago, a schoolteacher in France was beheaded by a radical Islamist for also initiating a classroom discussion about images of Muhammad.

O’Neill tegner et dystert bilde av en alvorlig situasjon. Her må Boris på banen, konkluderer han.

This teacher needs our support. The school has failed to give him its support, so perhaps the Prime Minister will? Boris Johnson, teachers in 21st-century Britain should be free to engage mature pupils in discussions about Islam and Muhammad — correct?

Boris Johnson har tidligere i sin karriere vist at han ikke er redd for å si sannheten om islam. I forbindelse med nyutgivelsen i 2006 av en bok Johnson selv hadde skrevet om Romerriket, leverte han en analyse av islam som de færreste har mot til å gjøre offentlig i dag:

“There must be something about Islam that indeed helps to explain why there was no rise of the bourgeoisie, no liberal capitalism and therefore no spread of democracy in the Muslim world.

“It is extraordinary to think that under the Roman/Byzantine empire, the city of Constantinople kept the candle of learning alight for a thousand years, and that under Ottoman rule, the first printing press was not seen in Istanbul until the middle of the nineteenth century. Something caused them to be literally centuries behind.”

Boris skjønner altså islam. Spørsmålet er om han har format til å ta tyren ved hornene fra Downing Street 10. Ikke hold pusten.

Kjøp Ruud Koopmans’ bok her!