Last Updated on November 22, 2022
A criminal complaint has been filed against a teacher who pointed out the fact that Muslim hijackers were responsible for the September 11 attacks. The teacher’s comments were made in an effort to stop Muslim students from heckling Khakan Qureshi, a speaker who had been invited to the school to talk about his experience being Muslim and gay. While the teacher tried to keep his statements politically correct, he is now the subject of a police investigation.
Students at the Wood Green Academy in the West Midlands “kept on saying that you cannot be gay and Muslim, because that contradicts the Qur’an,” the Daily Mail reported. Nearly half of the student body is comprised of Muslims due to rapid demographic change in the West Midlands.
After the speech, the teacher lectured the students on tolerance and asked them to be more respectful. “We live in a diverse and tolerant country. We are tolerant of different religions. Twenty-one years ago a group of Muslims smashed airplanes into buildings to kill thousands of people. At that stage people stood up and said, ‘No, we must not condemn Muslims for what a few have done,’” the teacher said. “Because we are a tolerant society, and that means we may not like some things that you say but you do have the right to say them.”
Despite the fact that the teacher was trying to say that all Muslims should not be blamed for 9/11, his remarks were recorded and led to a massive backlash that included death threats. A complaint sent to the school by hundreds of students and parents asked, “Why did he use the word Muslims as opposed to terrorists?”
“He has linked terrorism directly to Muslims and Islam. His tone is extremely aggressive, and I struggle to understand how this is considered appropriate behavior.”
The West Midlands Police Department has said it is “working with the school and looking into the content of the videos.”
They are also investigating the abuse and threats towards Qureshi.