Holocaust teaching controversy of 2007

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. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6563429.stm BBC NEWS | Education | Holocaust 'ban' e-mail confusion ] ] 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." [ [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=445979&in_page_id=1770 Teachers drop the Holocaust to avoid offending Muslims | the Daily Mail ] ] 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". [ [http://www.nypost.com/seven/04082007/postopinion/opedcolumnists/u_k__schools_sickening_silence_opedcolumnists_barry_rubin.htm?page=0 U.K. Schools' Sickening Silence - New York Post ] ] 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. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7226778.stm BBC NEWS | Education | UK government acts on hoax e-mail ] ]

Report

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". [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6563429.stm BBC NEWS | Education | Holocaust 'ban' e-mail confusion ] ] 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.

References

ee also

* Artificial controversy
* Holocaust Educational Trust
* Holocaust denial

External links

*cite web
url = http://www.history.org.uk/pdfs/Teach%20report.pdf
title = The T.E.A.C.H. report: Teaching Emotive and Controversial History 3-19
author =
format = pdf
date = 2007
publisher = The Historical Association
accessdate = 2008-02-27
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6563429.stm BBC news article on the story]
* [http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/holocaust.asp An example of the content of the e-mail]