Truth? We can't handle the truth.
Consider the following statement:-
Most neo-Nazis are white men.
There is nothing particularly inflammatory about it. It is a plain statement of fact, devoid of implication and relatively easy to prove.
I, as a Caucasian male, do not feel offended by this statement, as I am confident of the fact that I am not a neo-Nazi, however brutishly I might behave at the football.
Now consider the case of teacher Andrew McLuskey, who has been sacked from Bayliss Court Secondary School, Slough. During a religious education class he made the statement that ‘most suicide bombers are Muslim’.
Call me Mr. Stupid but I cannot see what is controversial or offensive about that statement. First off, it is true, from whatever angle you look at it. From my recollection, the number of Sikhs blowing themselves to bits in recent years has been relatively low.
Second, it carries no implications whatsoever. It is a statistic with no opinion attached to it. If pupils in McLuskey’s predominantly Muslim class were uncomfortable with it, surely that reflects their own interpretation of the facts and not his.
There is, just maybe, a case to be argued that it was too sensitive a statement to make in front of a class of schoolchildren. But if we, as a society, are to talk openly about any difficult issue, we must not be afraid of facts, only of their misuse.
Yes, most suicide bombers these days are Muslim. But this does not mean that Christians, Jains, Hindus or Buddhists should behave any differently towards Muslims than they do toward one another. Nor does it mean that terrorism is a problem exclusively of Islam.
As far as we know, McLuskey never implied otherwise, but has become another victim of our collective cultural insecurity about what we are allowed to say. His pupils will suffer if his replacement does not display the same degree of honesty and integrity that won him the sack.
Consider the following statement:-
Most neo-Nazis are white men.
There is nothing particularly inflammatory about it. It is a plain statement of fact, devoid of implication and relatively easy to prove.
I, as a Caucasian male, do not feel offended by this statement, as I am confident of the fact that I am not a neo-Nazi, however brutishly I might behave at the football.
Now consider the case of teacher Andrew McLuskey, who has been sacked from Bayliss Court Secondary School, Slough. During a religious education class he made the statement that ‘most suicide bombers are Muslim’.
Call me Mr. Stupid but I cannot see what is controversial or offensive about that statement. First off, it is true, from whatever angle you look at it. From my recollection, the number of Sikhs blowing themselves to bits in recent years has been relatively low.
Second, it carries no implications whatsoever. It is a statistic with no opinion attached to it. If pupils in McLuskey’s predominantly Muslim class were uncomfortable with it, surely that reflects their own interpretation of the facts and not his.
There is, just maybe, a case to be argued that it was too sensitive a statement to make in front of a class of schoolchildren. But if we, as a society, are to talk openly about any difficult issue, we must not be afraid of facts, only of their misuse.
Yes, most suicide bombers these days are Muslim. But this does not mean that Christians, Jains, Hindus or Buddhists should behave any differently towards Muslims than they do toward one another. Nor does it mean that terrorism is a problem exclusively of Islam.
As far as we know, McLuskey never implied otherwise, but has become another victim of our collective cultural insecurity about what we are allowed to say. His pupils will suffer if his replacement does not display the same degree of honesty and integrity that won him the sack.
posted by Rob Davies at 10:49 PM
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