A Muslim boy’s parents are taking legal action against his school after it hauled him into isolation, leaving him ‘scared and nervous’ all because he made comments about ‘eco-terrorism’, the act of extreme tree-huggery.
The boy, who doesn’t want to be named, was talking in a French lesson on the subject of ecology at north London’s Central Foundation School. And when they got onto the topic of people who use violence to protect the environment, he spoke up. In French, he explained that there are people who love trees so much they’ll drill loads of nails into them so that chainsaws can’t cut through them (the nails blunt the blades). He said that these people would, some say, be committing ‘eco-terrorisme’
Now, if a 14-year-old explained that to you, in French, you’d be pretty impressed, wouldn’t you? Alas, because the boy is Muslim, apparently someone saw fit to be concerned about this. As part of anti-extremism measures, schools have been told to be vigilant about any young people who might show any inclination to joining ISIS. So, with this pressure in mind, the poor boy was put into isolation a few days later.
In the ‘inclusion unit’, he was sat between a child protection officer who was there to determine if concerns about terrorism were legitimate, The Guardian reports, and a teacher from his school.
The boy told the paper: ‘I didn’t know what was going on. They said there had been safety concerns raised. If you are taken out of French class and asked about Isis, it is quite scary. My heart skipped a beat.’
In this meeting, he was asked about the French lesson, and when he explained how he’d spoken about eco-terrorism, the member of staff at his school told the protection officer: ‘Told you, he is a tree-hugger.’
‘She made a hugging gesture with her arms and, looking at me, asked me if I “went around hugging trees” like one of her relatives,’ the boy explains in a sworn statement: ‘She then asked me: “Do you have any affiliation with Isis?”’
‘When she said the word “ISIS” I immediately felt alarmed and extremely scared. I knew what Isis was as I have seen reports about them in the media. I knew that they behead and kill people. I could not think why she was asking me this or how it followed on from my French lesson ... and replied no.’
The boy has since been afraid to speak up in class in case the same thing happens again. His parents are suing the school because they think he was singled out for being Muslim. The school has said it was simply protecting the ‘welfare of the child in line with statutory and non-statutory guidance including the “prevent duty”’ (‘prevent’ is the name given to the whole governmental scheme to ensure young people don’t join ISIS).
This story comes after a Muslim boy in America was arrested after some teachers thought the clock he’d made for a science fair was a bomb. It wasn’t. It was a clock.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.