January 2, 2008
Q: Did the U.K. suspend its Holocaust curriculum because it offended Muslim students?
A: No, neither the United Kingdom nor the University of Kentucky has suspended teaching the Holocaust.
FULL QUESTION
Could you check out the following e-mail that is circulating? I am particularly interested in whether the UK actually has removed reference to the Holocaust from its school curriculum.
In Memorial
This week, the UK removed The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it 'offended' the Muslim population which claims it never occurred.
This is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it.
It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended.
This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the:
six million Jews,
20 million Russians,
10 million Christians
and 1,900 Catholic priests
who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated while the German and Russia peoples looking the other way![sic]
Now, more than ever, with Iran, among others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets.
This e-mail is intended to reach 40 million people worldwide!
Be a link in the memorial chain and help distribute this around the world.
Don't just delete this. It will take a minute to pass this along!
FULL ANSWER
This particular bit of bunk (along with an even more ridiculous version that turns the U.K. into the University of Kentucky) has been in circulation for several months now. A simple Google search reveals the falsity of the rumor, yet the e-mail continues to be passed along by the overly credulous.
The suggestion that the U.K. had banned teaching the Holocaust began appearing after the publication of a report from the British Historical Association. That report, titled Teaching Emotive and Controversial History 3-19, noted that "a history department in a northern city recently avoided selecting the Holocaust as a topic for GCSE coursework for fear of confronting anti-Semitic sentiment and Holocaust denial from some Muslim pupils."
