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SCHOOL

‘Gays can be cured’ Turin teacher tells pupils

The headmaster of a Turin school on Monday opened an investigation after a religion teacher allegedly told pupils homosexuality is an "illness" which can be "cured".

Published: 3 November 2014 17:32 CET
'Gays can be cured' Turin teacher tells pupils
The lesson was described by pupils as “the perfect manual of homophobia". School books photo: Shutterstock

The teacher at the Itis Pininfarina school told a class of 16-year-olds that homosexuality is a “psychological problem”, Il Secolo XIX reported.

She reportedly backed up her claims by saying the gay “illness” had been scientifically proven, describing the case of a man who had been “converted” from homosexuality.

According to the teacher, the man underwent months of therapy following childhood trauma, after which he supposedly gave up his gay lifestyle and had a family with a woman.

The story and wider lesson was however described as “the perfect manual of homophobia” by pupils and strongly condemned by the school’s headteacher.

“Here there could be gay students or teachers. It’s my duty that this place remains a place in which everyone can be accepted and enjoy the same rights,” headteacher Stefano Fava was quoted as saying.

He described the religion class as a “serious incident” and said he would speak to pupils and the teacher directly, before sending a report to the regional education office. 

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RELIGION

Al-Azhar university calls for Sweden boycott over Koran burning

The Sunni Muslim world's most prestigious educational institution, Al-Azhar in Egypt, has called for the boycott of Swedish and Dutch products after far-right activists destroyed Korans in those countries.

Published: 26 January 2023 15:10 CET
Al-Azhar university calls for Sweden boycott over Koran burning

Al-Azhar, in a statement issued on Wednesday, called on “Muslims to boycott Dutch and Swedish products”.

It also urged “an appropriate response from the governments of these two countries” which it charged were “protecting despicable and barbaric crimes in the name of ‘freedom of expression'”.

Swedish-Danish far-right politician Rasmus Paludan on Saturday set fire to a copy of the Muslim holy book in front of Turkey’s embassy in Stockholm, raising tensions as Sweden courts Ankara over its bid to join Nato.

EXPLAINED:

The following day, Edwin Wagensveld, who heads the Dutch chapter of the German anti-Islam group Pegida, tore pages out of the Koran during a one-man protest outside parliament.

Images on social media also showed him walking on the torn pages of the holy book.

The desecration of the Koran sparked strong protests from Ankara and furious demonstrations in several capitals of the Muslim world including in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry “strongly condemned” the Koran burning, expressing “deep concern at the recurrence of such events and the recent Islamophobic escalation in a certain number of European countries”.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson condemned Paludan’s actions as “deeply disrespectful”, while the United States called it “repugnant”.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price on Monday said the burning was the work of “a provocateur” who “may have deliberately sought to put distance between two close partners of ours – Turkey and Sweden”.

On Tuesday, Turkey postponed Nato accession talks with Sweden and Finland, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned Stockholm for allowing weekend protests that included the burning of the Koran.

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