Holocaust teaching controversy of 2007

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The Holocaust teaching controversy of 2007 was a controversy sparked by sensationalist claims mainly circulated in e-mails which stated that teaching of the Holocaust had been banned in British schools because of fears that this could offend Muslim pupils.^[1] The claims contained in the e-mails were false but inspired by real events.

The e-mails alleged that the ban had been put in place because of fears that such teaching could "offend" Muslim pupils, claiming that "the Moslem (sic) population" denied the Holocaust. The Daily Mail started their story on the subject with "Schools [plural, contrary to the findings of the report] are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils, a Government backed study has revealed."^[2] Following this, the tabloid New York Post ran an article headlined "U.K. SCHOOLS' SICKENING SILENCE" in which the writer asserted that sentence "may be the scariest sentence I ever read".^[3] The main medium for the claims, however, was a chain e-mail. The e-mails led some to e-mail the BBC enquiring as to whether the facts contained in the e-mail were true. In fact teaching of the Holocaust is mandatory in English schools and has not been banned elsewhere in the United Kingdom.

After e-mail messages continued to circulate into 2008 the British government Schools Secretary Ed Balls was forced to write to every Embassy in the country to refute the allegation that schools had banned or were reluctant to teach about the Holocaust.^[4]

The most popular version of the e-mail reads as thus:[5] In Memoriam Recently, this week, UK [the omission of the definite article may have led to some thinking this referred to the University of Kentucky] removed The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it "offended" the Moslem population which claims it never occurred. This is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it. It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated with the German and Russia [sic] peoples looking the other way! Now, more than ever, with Iran , among others, claiming the Holocaust to be "a myth," it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets. This e-mail is intended to reach 40 million people worldwide! Join us and be a link in the memorial chain and help us distribute it around the world. Please send this e-mail to 10 people you know and ask them to continue the memorial chain. Please don't just delete it. It will only take you a minute to pass this along - Thanks!

Contents 1 Facts 2 Similar stories 3 References 4 See also 5 External links

[edit] Facts

The e-mails were based upon a wide-ranging report which the Department for Education and Skills commissioned from the Historical Association, a group which promotes the study of history. This report suggested that teachers may avoid emotive and controversial periods of history, but did not recommend that they do. The report went on to give an example of “a northern city" in which a history department had "recently avoided selecting the Holocaust as a topic for GCSE coursework for fear of confronting anti-Semitic sentiment and Holocaust denial among some Muslim pupils".^[6] It was also noted that in another school, the Holocaust had been taught in spite of "anti-Semitic sentiment among some pupils" but that study of the Crusades had been avoided due to the contrast with the stories with which Muslim pupils were raised. In no case was it suggested that avoiding causing offence to Holocaust deniers should be an aim.

[edit] Similar stories

The story focusing on the alleged ban of teaching of the Holocaust is similar to many stories in the British press focusing on alleged bans because of Muslim sensitivity.

Other stories of bans have focused on:

• Pigs in school plays^[7]
  *Piggybanks^[8]
• Artwork depicting the Koran^[9]
• Passport photos ^[10]
• Christmas decorations^[11]
• Easter Eggs ^[12]
• German Opera^[13]
• England flags^[14]
• Hot-cross buns.^[15]

The stories have had varying degrees of factual accuracy with some appearing to be total fabrications, or in other cases with Muslims involved confirming they did not object.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Artificial controversy
• Holocaust Educational Trust
• Holocaust denial

[edit] External links

• The T.E.A.C.H. report: Teaching Emotive and Controversial History 3-19 (pdf). The Historical Association (2007). Retrieved on 2008-02-27.
• BBC news article on the story
• An example of the content of the e-mail