A month after a French teacher beheaded his class to show him the recipes of the Prophet Muhammad, fears are growing in the Netherlands that the effects of the wave of attacks are spreading in the country.
On Friday, an 18-year-old woman from the Dutch city of Rotterdam was arrested on suspicion of making online threats against her high-class teacher, who displayed her in the classroom. Cartoon supporting Charlie Hebdo, A French satirical newspaper that published the original Muhammad Kik Rechachers.
On Thursday, local media reported that another teacher was threatened after Dan Bosch showed a cartoon depicting Muhammad during a class about free speech at a high school in the city.
The two Dutch education ministers wrote in a letter to parliament to express their displeasure, saying that the crackdown on freedom of speech in Rotterdam and Dan Bosch schools had also caused unrest and threats. “Intimidating and threatening teachers cannot be tolerated in any way,” wrote Eri Slob and Ingrid Van Angeleshoven ministers.
At the center of the incident, which took place at Rotterdam Money Emmascole High School, was a picture of a cartoon posted on a classroom wall by a teacher many years ago that was shared on social media. According to the Dutch newspaper NRC, the cartoon depicts a decapitated man wearing a shirt named “Charlie Hebdo” with the tongue sticking out from under the bearded man, with the word “immortal” underneath, according to the Dutch newspaper NRC.
The cartoon was drawn by Dutch political cartoonist Jop Bertrames in January 2015, when Charlie Hebdo was targeted by terrorists in a terrorist attack in Paris, outraged by Mohammed’s strategy, in which 12 people were killed.
Pictures of the cartoon were placed on Instagram and Snapchat in a Rotterdam classroom, and circulated among students, drawing some angry attention. “If this is not removed quickly then we will deal with this differently,” read the caption under a picture showing a cartoon in the classroom on Instagram.
It is not clear if the 18-year-old woman was arrested in the comments, but her name is not, as authorities did not mention the nature of the alleged threat. The post has been deleted, but it has been portrayed as a screenshot in the Dutch media.
The woman was arrested on suspicion of posting a message on social media saying, “Others are incited to commit criminal offenses against the school and the teacher,” police said.
The incident comes after Dutch schools held memorials on Monday for teacher Samuel Patty, who was killed in France last month.
Events in France and the Netherlands have led to growing tensions between the region’s governments over issues such as free speech, and many of the citizens of the Muslim faith who have found content like Charlie Hebdo’s strategy and language used to defend them deeply .
After Mr Patti’s assassination, French authorities cracked down on Muslim individuals and groups that have upset many in the community. President Emanuel Macron’s interior minister, a far-right politician who once suggested that Islam “needs to be fully assimilated with the republic,” has been at the forefront of the effort.
In a letter to parents on Tuesday, Emmascolez High School said the “context surrounding the cartoon has completely disappeared” as it spread on social media. The NRC reported that some students at the school, including a large number of Muslims, mistakenly believed that the cartoon depicted Muhammad.
The letter said the result was that threats were made. “We find these threats unacceptable.”
In an interview, Dutch cartoonist Mr Bertrames said his paintings portrayed not Muhammad but a terrorist.
“I work against fanatics within a religion I don’t agree with.” Mr. Bertrams told about his cartoon. “I never made cartoons of the prophet and I guess I never would, even if I could, because I respect religion.”
In Rotterdam, police stepped up surveillance around Emmascolez, and Dutch officials urged teachers to report any threats or intimidation.
The threats have alarmed Dutch officials for their similarity with the events that took a fatal turn in France last month.
Pat history The history teacher of the year, Mr. Patti, faced angry student reactions after being shown Charlie Hebdo caricatures in a freedom of expression class. Mr Patti later apologized, but the angry father complained about him in a video uploaded on social media. The 18-year-old teenager who watched the videos went to Mr. School on October 16th where Mr. Pati taught and killed him on the street after he left school.
Rotterdam Police spokesman Lillian van Duisenbod said: “There is a lot of attention being paid to what happened in France. We are taking these threats very seriously.”
The Dutch media and Mr Slobe, one of the education ministers who wrote the letter to parliament, said the Rotterdam teacher, whose name has not been released, went into hiding. Emmasclage declined to comment about the teacher, and police declined to comment on his whereabouts.
French officials said he was targeted by an attack on Mr Patti, the country’s mainstay, its public education system. And officials there, as well as in the Netherlands and other countries, have pledged to protect freedom of expression, encouraging teachers to discuss Mr. Pity’s murder with their students.
Since the attack, French officials have reported several other related incidents. French Education Minister Jean-Michel Blancover said a minute of silence in French schools in Mr Patti’s memory had been disrupted on several occasions. And earlier this week, a teacher in the Paris suburbs filed a complaint when she said she heard a man threatening to “take revenge on the Prophet” and target teachers near an elementary school.
Rance Goedknegt, a history teacher at Harlem High School in the Dutch city, said Mr Patti’s murder and the incident in Rotterdam were discussed at his school.
He said he had talked to his students about Mr. Vidyarthi’s murder and many of them “find it difficult to understand why so many cartoons are harmful.” But, he added, “other kids had a good look at how criminal it must have felt.”
Cartoonist Mr. Bertram said caricatures need to be referenced when shown to students. He said the attacker he represented in 2015 was painted black, reminiscent of those worn by Islamic State fighters who made headlines at the time.
“The cartoon is very useful for explaining problems in society, as its simplicity makes it very easy to understand,” Mr. Bertrames said. “The danger is that, because of the simplicity, misunderstandings can also happen very easily.”
Continued to report from Paris.
