A teacher received death threats after showing pupils a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed during an RE lesson almost two years ago and has remained in hiding ever since as he fears for his life. The teacher, who is in his late 20s, showed the controversial cartoon by French magazine Charlie Hebdo.
After showing pupils the cartoon at Batley Grammar School in West Yorkshire in March 2021, parents and activists protested at the school gates for days.
The teacher was forced to flee his home in Batley with his partner and four young children and since then has been living in a secret location outside the Yorkshire area, reports claim.
The teacher, who was head of RE at Batley Grammar, has also been given a new identity.
It is unknown if he remains in the teaching profession.
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A family source told MailOnline: “He’s living far away from the Batley area and has been given a new identity. He’s slowly trying to rebuild his life, but it’s not been easy.
“The whole family has gone through a very difficult time. He got into a lot of trouble for what happened, and it could have cost him his life.
“It’s better that he’s out of this area and the less people know, the better.”
Yunus Lunat, a prominent local lawyer who acted as spokesman for Muslim parents at the time of the incident, said: “The teacher is leading a new life under another identity somewhere far from here. But even if he was to come back to Batley, I can assure you that his life would not be in danger.
“We’ve all moved on, everything is calm and has been settled after the initial furore. It’s a shame that the teacher concerned did not have the confidence to allow a mediated return to work.
“That is what the community wanted to achieve but that got drowned out by the media and political frenzy.”
Showing images of the Prophet Mohammed is strictly forbidden in Islam.
What further sparked controversy amongst many Muslim parents and pupils was that the image shown in the class was taken from the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which was targeted in a 2015 deadly mass shooting after publishing a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed.
A former neighbour of the teacher in Batley said: “He was a wonderful, caring man and they were a lovely family. We miss them a lot because they were a big part of this community.
“He used to send all of his Muslim neighbours Eid cards and would celebrate the festival with us. That’s what makes this so said because he was very considerate towards our culture and faith.
“There is no way he would have deliberately wanted to offend Muslims.”
*This story has not been edited by The Infallible staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.