Girl, 18, arrested for threats against teacher who had Charlie Hebdo cartoon

From Dutch News

Rotterdam police have arrested an 18-year-old young woman in connection with threats made against a teacher who had a satirical drawing about the Charlie Hebdo killings in France on his classroom notice board. The teacher reportedly went into hiding after a photo of the drawing was picked up on social media, amid claims by a group of girls at the Emmauscollege that it featured Mohammed rather than a terrorist.

The teenager has been arrested for incitement, police said, because she had placed a message on social media which called on people to ‘commit crimes against the school and teacher’.

The school issued a statement on Thursday saying the photo of the cartoon, by Dutch artist Joep Bertrams, was ‘completely missing the context’. As a result, the statement said, threats have been made against our colleagues, which is completely unacceptable.

The NRC, which broke the story on Thursday, has interviewed several pupils at the school, most of whom thought the cartoon had featured Mohammed, rather than a terrorist and who spoke about the speed with which it was shared on social media.

Cartoonist Joep Bertrams is interviewed here, by Trouw

Bertrams (74) saw the incident around his cartoon last Monday via Twitter. “I actually found it very annoying that someone with such a print, who is misunderstood in the wrong way, gets into trouble,” the cartoonist responds. “Of course you can’t, that’s ridiculous,” says Bertrams. The cartoonist marvels at the sensitivity. “It’s the search for a riot. It’s a jihadist who did that. How am I supposed to sign it? With a top hat?”

The cartoonist underlines once again that his print has nothing to do with the prophet. “Then you can tell anyone with a beard and a black cloth around their head that it is the prophet,” says Bertrams. “This way it becomes a difficult story.”

Eventually, the print at the Rotterdam school was removed. Bertrams: “I think that’s kind of weird. You have to explain how the cartoon is meant to be. And if students don’t agree with that, that’s their problem.”

Bertrams drew the cartoon after the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack. In that year he also won the Ink Spot Prize with the cartoon. The prize for the best political drawing of the year, organised by stichting Pers en Prent.

“Very crazy, this cartoon has nothing to do with the prophet,” responds Niels Beugeling, president of the foundation. “That’s the scary thing about this time. Things are taken out of context, and the whole story behind them disappears. People only see a bearded man with a sword. The fact that this is misinterpreted is very unfortunate and also very scary.”

Beugeling says the jury couldn’t get around the print in 2015. “It was one artist who stood up for the other artist, with humor. There’s no way to overcome that. It was such an incredible event with enormous impact.” Bertrams wanted to say with the cartoon: ‘Come on boy. They’re not going to get us down.’ Now he mainly hopes that things will soon calm down around the teacher. “This is very annoying for the teacher in question. For now, let’s breathe easy.”