Teacher suspended for showing class picture of Osama bin Laden as the Prophet Mohammed

A Church of England school has suspended a teacher for showing a picture of Osama bin Laden as the Prophet Mohammed during a religious education lesson.

All Saints Academy, a mixed secondary school in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, issued a profuse apology over what it described as “totally inappropriate images” used in a presentation for a Year 10 lesson last week.

A “concerned” pupil was said to have raised concerns with the school about the presentation slide, which showed a picture of the al-Qaeda terrorist next to a caption saying it was the Prophet Mohammed and, in the line below, “Last prophet in Islam".

The school has faced a furious backlash from Britain’s Islamic community after what was said to be a picture of the slide was obtained by 5Pillars, a Muslim news website, on Friday.

Within hours, the school posted a brief statement on social media saying: “We are fully aware of a totally inappropriate use of resources that was used by a teacher during an RS lesson today.

“As soon as we became aware of its existence, the offensive image was removed from all devices and an immediate investigation was launched.”

The school added that it apologised “unreservedly” for the offence caused by the image, but criticism on social media continued to intensify over the weekend.

The wrongful use of Bin Laden’s image was compounded by the fact depictions of the Prophet Mohammad are, in themselves, considered to be deeply offensive to Muslims.

Dilly Hussain, the deputy editor of the 5Pillars website, described it as “disgraceful and unacceptable”.

By Sunday, the school had decided to post a more detailed statement on social media which acknowledged how grievously it had inflamed religious sensitivities.

It said: “Not only was it offensive to attempt to portray an image of the Prophet (Mohammed), but the image that was used was that of Osama bin Laden, a terrorist leader, which further added to the deep insult.”

The statement disclosed that the member of staff involved in the lesson was “immediately suspended”, pending a “detailed and swift investigation”.

It said it would be against the academy’s disciplinary procedures to identify the teacher involved.

The school also pledged to commission an independently led review of the “circumstances surrounding the case to determine how this individual came to act in such an inappropriate and upsetting way”.

The statement continued: "Having now established very useful links with members of the Muslim community in Luton, we would hope to work together to gain a better understanding of religious and cultural matters that impact on all our lives and will help us to be better educators.”

All Saints Academy describes itself as a Church of England school which is governed in accordance to a "Christian ethos".

Its website says: “Our faith is central to everything that we do.”

The incident has echoes of an ugly row which engulfed Batley Grammar School in West Yorkshire last year when a teacher showed a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed in class.

The school was forced to close for several days after dozens of protesters gathered at the gates to call for the teacher to be sacked.

The image, taken from the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, was said to have been shown during a religious education class.