Islamic charity ‘put Batley cartoon row teacher in danger’ by outing him

The organisation at the heart of the Batley Grammar School row has been reported to the Charity Commission for acting in a “reckless” manner and endangering a teacher’s safety, The Telegraph can disclose. Purpose of Life has been accused of leaving a teacher – who showed a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed to his class on Monday – in danger of “physical harm” by publishing his name online.

On Thursday, the group’s chief executive Mohammad Sajad Hussain accused the teacher of “terrorism” and “insulting Islam” adding that the charity would not work with the school again until the Religious Studies (RS) teacher is “permanently removed” from the school. On Thursday night, the 29-year-old RS teacher was understood to be in hiding after police raised concerns for his safety when he was named online.

In a letter to the Charity Commission, the Free Speech Union said they are concerned that the actions of Purpose of Life, a charity local to the school in West Yorkshire, could “expose the teacher to serious disrepute and physical harm as a result of teaching his students about a controversial topic”.

Their letter went on to say: “The exercise and promotion of the right to free expression should not have such potentially dire consequences in this country.

“We therefore ask that the Commission investigate Purpose of Life’s letter as a serious incident. We believe it has breached its obligations as a charity in the following ways. . . Naming him as a sadistic abuser of Islam, in the wake of the murder of Samuel Paty in Paris, was unforgivably reckless,” the letter added.

The man who announced the teacher had been suspended, after he had a meeting with the head teacher, is Mufti Mohammed Amin Pandor, a local scholar and director of the Peace Institute charity.

Last month Mr Pandor met Boris Johnson when he visited the Indian Muslim Welfare Society in Batley, a Covid vaccination centre, to encourage people from ethnic minorities to get jabbed. Mr Pandor tweeted that he had had a “good discussion” with the Prime Minister.

But on Friday he told his followers not to get vaccinated, tweeting out a fatwa, or ruling in Islamic law, that questions the safety of the vaccines and tells Muslims to instead recite a prayer three times every morning and evening asking Allah to grant good health.

Mr Pandor took part in a Radio 4 documentary about the Deobandi branch of Islam in 2016 in which he explained his philosophy as: “If the Prophet Mohammed didn’t do it, we don’t do it.”

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