Province's French-education bureau under fire after image offensive to Muslims distributed in Grade 12 exam booklet

Winnipeg Free Press

3 days ago

The French education bureau is facing backlash for distributing hundreds of Grade 12 provincial exams that contain an infamous caricature of the founder of Islam.
Muslim leaders are condemning Islamophobic imagery that was printed in a case study distributed to 500 French immersion students, and the Manitoba government's response.
'The harm has been done…. This has been a continued way of how we are addressing Islamophobia — it's always an afterthought,' said Shahina Siddiqui, executive director of the Islamic Social Services Association in Winnipeg.
High schools across the province distributed booklets for the multi-day exam on May 28.
The following day, after receiving complaints about a section about French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, the education department asked teachers to collect them.
School staff were directed to black out a cartoon mocking the prophet Muhammad — first printed on the front page of the Paris-based weekly satirical publication more than a decade ago — before redistributing the exam materials.
The theme of the exam section in question is, 'La liberté d'expression : un bien ou un mal?' (Is free speech a good thing or bad thing?).
Grade 12 students were assigned to read a report about Charlie Hebdo and the Jan. 7, 2015 attack by two French-born Muslim brothers who murdered 12 magazine employees and injured 11 others.
The French-language magazine has been the target of multiple violent attacks in recent history, owing to its provocative content challenging religious, political and social norms.
The Manitoba government borrowed the case study from an external source. It includes a loonie-sized image of a Charlie Hebdo edition depicting Muhammad as its guest editor.
A caricature mocking the prophet says in a speech bubble in French: '100 whips if you don't die laughing!'
The edition was rebranded as 'Charia Hebdo,' a nod to Shariah — religious laws and ethics that underpin Islamic traditions and which many Muslims interpret to discourage the creation of visual representations of Muhammad.
Siddiqui, a longtime advocate of anti-Islamophobia education, called the decision to reprint the image that has been widely condemned by Muslims across the world as 'really, really disturbing.'
The grandmother of school-aged children called on the French education bureau, often called 'the BEF,' to issue an apology.
School divisions have been given the go-ahead to administer 'alternate evaluations' for students negatively affected by what the province has deemed 'potentially sensitive content,' the Free Press has learned.
'The department takes the concerns raised about this content seriously and is reviewing this matter to ensure that future examination materials are appropriately considered,' a provincial spokesperson said in a statement.
Manitoba announced it was creating a committee to tackle Islamophobia in kindergarten-to-Grade 12 schools at the start of the academic year.
Committee member Youcef Soufi said whoever approved the Charlie Hebdo case study 'messed up big time.'
'Some Muslims feel that Muhammad shouldn't be depicted. Others don't care. How he's depicted and the consequences on Muslim students is what matters most here,' said Soufi, who is both a consultant for the Manitoba Islamic Association and researcher on Islamphobia at the University of Manitoba.
Soufi questioned the 'problematic narrative arc' of the material as he said it positions Muslims as a threat to freedom of expression.
'It sends a message to Muslim students that they don't belong here. It positions them as opposed to our commonly held Canadian values — a way of thinking that led to several deadly attacks on Muslims in the last decade,' he added.
Education Minister Tracy Schmidt was not made available for comment on the subject.
Both the National Council of Canadian Muslims and Manitoba Teachers' Society endorsed the province's decision to remove the image from the exams.
While noting some of her teacher-colleagues might view the image as a way to help students 'recognize the harmful effects of racism,' MTS president Lillian Klausen said an insulting figure can prove distracting.
'We want all students to do their best work on this important writing assessment. And if this image affects or triggers students so that they cannot do their best work on this exam, it's better to leave it out,' the francophone teacher added.
The end-of-term test, originally scheduled May 28-June 2, is worth 20 per cent of each student's final mark in the immersion course.
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Maggie MacintoshEducation reporter
Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she first reported for the Free Press in 2017. Read more about Maggie.
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