An Irish teacher has been jailed for refusing to bow to transgender pressure from the school where he taught, according to conservative propaganda.
NEWS: Enoch Burke refused in the past to refer to a "transitioning" student by the pronoun "she". The teacher has been imprisoned now for the third time, according to the European Conservative. The teacher served about 400 days in jail at Montjoy Prison after defying an order barring him from school.
On Monday, 2 September 2024, Burke was arrested again outside his former workplace, Wilson's Hospital School in County Westmeath. He was taken to the Dublin Court and spent the night in Mountjoy Prison. This time he was convicted for refusing to give a yes or no answer when asked if he intended to return to school.
“This court is simply denying me my religious beliefs and my right to religious freedom. I am a Christian. I have Christian faith. My faith is male and female, God made a man and a woman," said Enoch Burke. He cited passages from the Bible and said that teachers were "ordered to force transgenderism on students."
NARRATIVE: An Irish teacher has been arrested for the third time because of his refusal to accept transgender ideology.
Convicted for breaching a restraining order
WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: Contrary to the claims made by ultra-religious conservatives, Enoch Burke's arrest has nothing to do with his religious beliefs, it’s the result of his refusal to comply with a restraining order and contempt of court.
Burke, a teacher of history and German language at a school in Heathland, County Westmeath, Ireland, was suspended in August 2022 after an altercation with the school's headmaster. The conflict did start with a dispute over the use of a new name and the pronoun "they/their" for a student who wanted to change their gender, but that was not the real reason for the suspension. In fact, Burke did not even teach the class of the student in question, but he sought to cause a scandal using an email from the management on this topic, received by the entire school staff. At a meeting attended by students and teachers, Burke interrupted the event to voice his opposition to the school's decision (which, we repeat, was not directly aimed at him) and to condemn transgenderism in general. After the event in question ended, Burke continued the "protest" by following the school principal, whom he assaulted in public, resulting in his suspension, pending the verdict of the ensuing disciplinary investigation.
But, despite the school’s decision, Burke continued to come to the school, so the school management applied to the court for a restraining order against him, which would prevent him from being present on the premises and near the school. Because the teacher repeatedly ignored the court decision, he was arrested in September 2022. For his defiant attitude in front of the court, he was sentenced to prison, and was released in December, with the start of the winter vacation, without being absolved of guilt and with the restriction order still in force. After the vacation, Enoch Burke resumed his habit of standing in front of the school entrance every day, and in September 2023 he was arrested for the second time. The judge told him he would be released if he simply promised to comply with the restraining order and stay away from school, but the Irish teacher chose not to do so. He was, however, released at the beginning of summer vacation, also without being absolved and with the restraining order in effect, but with the start of the current school year, Burke resumed his habits, so at the beginning of last week he was arrested for the third time and incarcerated in a prison in Dublin.
Burke has been fired in the meantime, and now claims that his dismissal is not legal, as the proceedings are in the appeals phase, and he only wants to do his "job".
In conclusion, although at a superficial glance it may seem so, Enoch Burke’s case has nothing to do with freedom of expression or an individual's right to religious freedom. It’s just a case of disobedience towards the law and a court’s decisions. In fact, we are dealing with a blatant manipulation of public perception on religious grounds, an attempt to self-promote one's own ultra-religious agenda and the reputation of a "soldier of Christ who fights against the forces of evil".
Religion as a pretext for civil disobedience
CONTEXT: The "morally decayed and deviant from Christian values" West is one of the main narratives of Moscow's propaganda war against the EU and NATO, intensified to its maximum along with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine . Topics related to the LGBTQ+ community have been used for years in attempts to discredit the European cultural space. Thus, the EU is presented as "Gayropa", a space in antithesis to that of traditional, Christian, Orthodox values, which Russia claims to represent. The idea of a so-called "LGBT agenda" is promoted, which the EU/West (including the US Democrats) would try to forcefully impose. The messages are then picked up by local "spokespeople" and adapted to the specifics of each targeted country.
Over time, Veridica has dismantled several false narratives about alleged elements of connection between school, children and the LGBTQ+ community , which claimed that Romanian students are forced to watch pro-homosexuality propaganda films, and following the education received in schools, they will no longer know their gender and what species they belong to. Also in the same register of demonizing the LGBTQ+ community, and borrowing narrative elements from the international conservative spectrum, narratives have appeared in the domestic space stating that the World Health Organization is pursuing the sexual mutilation of children, or that, in the USA, Catholic Easter has become Transsexual Day.
In Romania, still a deeply religious and conservative country, marked over time by tendencies towards extremism, the last three years have hosted a veritable festival of fake news, many with Moscow origins, adapted to local ethe by opinion leaders of ultra-conservative extremist circles . As an example, in January 2023, a narrative was circulated claiming that in the UK, a woman was arrested for praying silently . On the same principle, about a year later, the defenders of Christianity in Romania announced that in Canada, Christians will be condemned for quoting the Bible , and a few months ago, amplifying the Christianopathic and homophobic narratives, that Romanian authorities are punishing faith in Christ .
The Burke family, consisting of parents Martina and Sean, and their ten children – Ammi, Elijah, Enoch, Esther, Isaac, Jemima, Josiah, Keren, Kezia and Simeon – are renowned in Ireland for their religious and anti-LGBTQ+ activism, including involvement in anti-abortion criminal trials, harassment of LGBTQ+ politicians and campaigns against the rights of sexual minorities, such as same-sex marriage.
Enoch Burke has participated in most of these incidents, including a protest where he spouted conspiracy theories about LGBTQ+ people and their connection to HIV/AIDS. In addition, along with three of his brothers, Enoch was banned for life from student associations at NUI Galway University for, among other things, likening homosexuality to pedophilia.
The Burkes regularly invoke religious discrimination to justify their actions, despite the fact that most of their court appearances relate to incidents unrelated to religion, such as disorderly conduct and failure to comply with court orders.
PURPOSE: To promote anti-Western and anti-European discourses, to amplify anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments and trigger anti-system social movements.
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