Belgian Teacher Appeals Suspension for Showing Muhammad Cartoon in Class

Dissatisfied, the teacher has decided to turn to the Council of State in the hope of seeing his suspension canceled, reports Le Vif. His lawyer Jean Bourtembourg will point out that it was up to the municipal council to make the decision in its capacity as the organizing authority of municipal school number 11 and not to the director of the Education department to do so. He will also say that it is a "abuse of power" carried out in haste.

During a class session, the suspended teacher had shown his students a drawing made by Coco, a cartoonist for Charlie Hebdo. This drawing, titled "A Star is Born", shows the Prophet Muhammad kneeling, with his buttocks exposed. This course made a student uncomfortable who had talked about it to his mother. In turn, she had reported the facts to the management. The teacher had explained that he wanted to open the debate following the assassination of Samuel Paty, in France. He will be suspended.

Mayor Catherine Moureaux had tried to justify the commune’s decision. According to her, she had nothing to do with the debate on the blasphemous nature of the caricatures but the obscene nature of the drawing. "No one has to show 10-year-old children the genitals of anyone," she had hammered.