Schools shouldn’t have “blasphemy” rules.

The home secretary has agreed to issue new guidance on ‘blasphemy’ incidents at schools, following concerns raised by the National Secular Society.

In a letter sent last week, the NSS asked Suella Braverman to work with the Department for Education towards “an improved understanding of blasphemy and its role in the wider threat posed by Islamism” in the context of state schools.

Writing in The Times this weekend, Braverman said schools should answer to “pupils and parents” rather than “self-appointed community activists”.

“I will work with the Department for Education to issue new guidance spelling this out”, she added.

Ms Braverman’s article continues: “We do not have blasphemy laws in Great Britain, and must not be complicit in the attempts to impose them on this country. There is no right not to be offended. There is no legal obligation to be reverent towards any religion. The lodestar of our democracy is freedom of speech.”

That’s a good sentence – “There is no legal obligation to be reverent towards any religion.” I don’t think any comparable US head of department would say that.

Her pledge comes in the wake of events at Kettlethorpe High School in West Yorkshire, where four pupils were suspended last week after one of them brought in a scuffed copy of the Quran. The episode was recorded as a “hate incident” by the police and one of the boys, who has high functioning autism, has been subjected to death threats. His mother said she had been left “absolutely petrified”.

The police persecute people for being skeptical of religion, including the religion of TransWomenAreWomen, while turning a blind eye to colleagues who rape women. Skewed priorities.