Religious education teacher is reprimanded over vile antisemitic posts on social media

dailyrecord.co.uk:

An RE teacher at an Ayrshire secondary school has been reprimanded by the General Teaching Council for Scotland — after sharing an antisemitic post online from a fake profile.

Edward Sutherland used the alias ‘Stevie Harrison’ and shared one message which read “f**k Israel” on Facebook. Sutherland, a Religious and Moral Education teaching principal at Belmont Academy, Ayr, carried out the behaviour between September 25, 2018 and January 2019.

Sutherland, with a 25-year teaching career, faced allegations that his behaviour was “antisemitic” and that his fitness to teach was “impaired.”He admitted posting the material, but claimed the messages were not antisemitic due to there being a “distinction” between Zionism, a political position, and Judaism, a religion.In one post Sutherland, a convenor in the Confederation of Friends of Israel Groups in Scotland, said: “If I lose my job because some Zionist doesn’t like me supporting the people of Palestine, don’t worry about it.

I’ll still have my dignity.”Another post read: “Looks like a certain Zio’s big nose is out of joint,” while another said: “I’ve seen it all now.