Hamline University Apparently Fires Professor Against Medieval Muhammad Paints

Students complained about medieval Muhammadine paintings in an online art history class taught by Hamline University.

The professor gave a class on Islamic art at the University of Toronto, 6 October. showed Two paintings, a 14th-century famous painting depicting Muhammad and Gabriel and a 16th century painting of Muhammad with veil and halo.

One student, Aram Wedatalla, a senior at Hamline and the president of the Minnesota school’s Muslim Student Association, happened to be in class when the images were shown and took issue with them. Many Muslims believe it’s forbidden to make or look at visual representations that depict Muhammad.

Wedatalla complained against the professor and pressured administrators into addressing the problem.

“I’m like, ‘this can’t be real,’” Wedatalla told The Oracle, Hamline’s student newspaper. “As a Muslim, and a black person, I don’t feel like I belong, and I don’t think I’ll ever belong in a community where they don’t value me as a member, and they don’t show the same respect that I show them.”

Hamline appears to have acquiesced to the student’s demands and swiftly cut ties with the professor.

“In lieu of this incident, it was decided it was best that this faculty member was no longer part of the Hamline community,” David Everett, Hamline’s associate vice president for inclusive excellence, told The Oracle.

The professor apologized before being expelled, and tried to work things out with Wedatalla, but to no avail.

“I would like to apologize that the image I showed in class on [Oct. 6] made you uncomfortable and caused you emotional agitation. It is never my intention to upset or disrespect students in my classroom,” the professor wrote in an October 8 email to Wedatalla.

“I did not try to surprise students with this image, and I did my best to provide students with an ‘out,’” The professor continued. “I also described every subsequent slide I showed with language to indicate when I was no longer showing an image of the Prophet Muhammad. I am sorry that despite my attempt to prevent a negative reaction, you still viewed and were troubled by this image.”

Nevertheless, Hamline excoriated the professor’s actions as “undeniably inconsiderate, disrespectful and Islamophobic.”

“While the intent behind those actions may not have been to cause harm, it came at the expense of Hamline’s Muslim community members. While much work has been done to address the issue in question since it occurred, the act itself was unacceptable,” Everett, the associate vice president for inclusive excellence, said in an email to students, according To Reason.

Everett said the Hamline administration teamed up with the Muslim Student Association to come up with a plan to address Islamophobia on campus. The plan includes a new bias reporting tool and an open forum on Islamophobia.

Respect should be shown to Muslim students “superseded academic freedom,” Fayneese Miller, Hamline President, and Everett spoke in another follow up email Reason states that this applies to students.

“It is not our intent to place blame; rather, it is our intent to note that in the classroom incident — where an image forbidden for Muslims to look upon was projected on a screen and left for many minutes — respect for the observant Muslim students in that classroom should have superseded academic freedom,” The email was sent.

The chairman of Hamline’s religion department, Professor Mark Berkson, wrote a letter to the editor of The Oracle, criticizing the university’s decision. Berkson’s letter was published but then reportedly taken down.

“In the context of an art history classroom, showing an Islamic representation of the Prophet Muhammad, a painting that was done to honor Muhammad and depict an important historical moment, is not an example of Islamophobia,” Berkson wrote.

A professor of Islamic art at another university also participated.

Incorrectly, Hamline administrators equated “historical Islamic images” With “offensive Euro-American cartoons” These are harmful to Muslims living in their vicinity. wrote Professor Christiane Gruber teaches Islamic art at University of Michigan.

Gruber also began a petition Hamline Board of Trustees demanding an outside investigation that has garnered more than 900 signatures as of Wednesday afternoon.

In addition, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is investigating The incident. PEN America is a free expression organisation. condemned Hamline’s move, saying it appears to be an “egregious violation” of the professor’s academic freedom.

Hamline University didn’t respond to our request for comment.

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