Safe space, used in educational settings as a metaphor,stresses the importance of the classroom being a learningenvironment characterised by respect and safety. Based onexamples from Swedish and Norwegian classroom research,this article problematises and discusses the complexity inthe discourse on safe space by asking the critical questions:Being safe from what? – and safe for whom? Related to theconcept of safe space are questions about what possibly canmake the classroom an unsafe place. In addition to varioustypes of intimidation, harassment and attacks, discussionsabout certain issues and topics can, for various reasons, beperceived as threatening. The school is part of society, andin an increasingly polarised climate, controversial issues incontemporary society will often be perceived as controversial in classroom practice. In this sense, instead of givingstudents false promises of being safe in the ReligiousEducation (RE) classroom, the concept 'classroom of disagreement' may be a useful metaphor, since it makes itexplicitly clear that disagreements exist and are part of life