A Belgian elementary school teacher has been suspended for showing derogatory caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad while he was discussing the beheading of the French teacher, Samuel Paty, the local media reported on Friday.
It further added that the Belgian teacher, whose name has not been made public yet, was based in Brussels and was teaching the students aged between 10 and 11. As one of the caricatures previously published by the French magazine was shown to the students, the teacher reportedly allowed them to look down.
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Following the incident, the local educational authorities have launched disciplinary action against the elementary school teacher. Meanwhile, the mayor of the Molenbeek maintained that the actions were taken because of the explicit nature of the cartoons and not for specifically showing the pictures of the person most revered in Islam.
The mayor’s spokesman further added that “Our decision is uniquely based on the fact that these are obscene images. If it had not been of the Prophet, we would have done the same thing.” On Thursday, the preliminary disciplinary hearing took place.
But some nationalist leaders denounced the decision to suspend the teacher, who described the move as “shocking.” Georges Bouchez, a senator of Belgium, took to Twitter and said that he wishes that this information is untrue, and if not, it is “unacceptable.”
Meanwhile, following the beheading of Paty, neighboring France remains in shock. Some angry parents targeted Paty after the teacher showed pupils the derogatory caricatures during his class on freedom of expression. Furthermore, on Thursday, in the French city of Nice, three people were killed in an attack on a church, which was again blamed on Islamist extremism.
The Muslims across the world maintained that the cartoons disregarded the religious sensitivities as they regard any image of the Prophet as blasphemous. But the French laws are secular. Thus, religious beliefs enjoy no special protection.
