{"id":1789836,"date":"2022-12-29T14:17:59","date_gmt":"2022-12-29T19:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1789836"},"modified":"2022-12-29T14:18:24","modified_gmt":"2022-12-29T19:18:24","slug":"hamline-university-apparently-fires-professor-over-medieval-muhammad-paintings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hamline-university-apparently-fires-professor-over-medieval-muhammad-paintings\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamline University Apparently Fires Professor Against Medieval Muhammad Paints"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhamline-university-apparently-fires-professor-over-medieval-muhammad-paintings%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1789836&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n<p>Students complained about medieval Muhammadine paintings in an online art history class taught by Hamline University.<\/p>\n<p>The professor gave a class on Islamic art at the University of Toronto, 6 October.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/hamlineoracle.com\/10750\/news\/who-belongs\/\">showed<\/a> Two paintings, a 14th-century famous painting depicting Muhammad and Gabriel and a 16th century painting of Muhammad with veil and halo.<\/p>\n<p>One student, Aram Wedatalla, a senior at Hamline and the president of the Minnesota school\u2019s Muslim Student Association, happened to be in class when the images were shown and took issue with them. Many Muslims believe it&#8217;s forbidden to make or look at visual representations that depict Muhammad.<\/p>\n<p>Wedatalla complained against the professor and pressured administrators into addressing the problem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018this can\u2019t be real,\u2019\u201d Wedatalla told The Oracle, Hamline\u2019s student newspaper. \u201cAs a Muslim, and a black person, I don\u2019t feel like I belong, and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever belong in a community where they don\u2019t value me as a member, and they don\u2019t show the same respect that I show them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hamline appears to have acquiesced to the student\u2019s demands and swiftly cut ties with the professor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn lieu of this incident, it was decided it was best that this faculty member was no longer part of the Hamline community,\u201d David Everett,\u00a0Hamline\u2019s associate vice president for inclusive excellence, told\u00a0The Oracle.<\/p>\n<p>The professor apologized before being expelled, and tried to work things out with Wedatalla, but to no avail.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI 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,\u201d the professor wrote in an\u00a0October 8 email to Wedatalla.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI did not try to surprise students with this image, and I did my best to provide students with an \u2018out,\u2019\u201d The professor continued.\u00a0\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, Hamline excoriated the professor\u2019s\u00a0actions as \u201cundeniably inconsiderate, disrespectful and Islamophobic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile the intent behind those actions may not have been to cause harm, it came at the expense of Hamline\u2019s Muslim community members. While much work has been done to address the issue in question since it occurred, the act itself was unacceptable,\u201d Everett, the\u00a0associate vice president for inclusive excellence, said in an email to students, <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/volokh\/2022\/12\/26\/hamline-university-apparently-fires-art-history-lecturer-for-showing-depictions-of-muhammed\/\">according<\/a> To Reason.<\/p>\n<p>Everett said the Hamline administration teamed up with the Muslim Student Association to come up with a plan to\u00a0address Islamophobia on campus. The plan includes a new bias reporting tool and an open forum on Islamophobia.<\/p>\n<p>Respect should be shown to Muslim students \u201csuperseded academic freedom,\u201d Fayneese Miller, Hamline President, and Everett spoke in another follow up <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/volokh\/2022\/12\/26\/hamline-university-apparently-fires-art-history-lecturer-for-showing-depictions-of-muhammed\/\">email<\/a> Reason states that this applies to students.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is not our intent to place blame; rather, it is our intent to note that in the classroom incident \u2014 where an image forbidden for Muslims to look upon was projected on a screen and left for many minutes \u2014 respect for the observant Muslim students in that classroom should have superseded academic freedom,\u201d The email was sent.<\/p>\n<p>The chairman of Hamline\u2019s religion department, Professor Mark Berkson, wrote a letter to the editor of The Oracle,\u00a0criticizing the university\u2019s decision. Berkson\u2019s letter was published but then\u00a0reportedly taken down.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn 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,\u201d Berkson wrote.<\/p>\n<p>A professor of Islamic art at another university also participated.<\/p>\n<p>Incorrectly, Hamline administrators equated \u201chistorical Islamic images\u201d With \u201coffensive Euro-American cartoons\u201d These are harmful to Muslims living in their vicinity. <a href=\"https:\/\/newlinesmag.com\/argument\/academic-is-fired-over-a-medieval-painting-of-the-prophet-muhammad\/\">wrote<\/a>\u00a0Professor Christiane Gruber teaches Islamic art at University of Michigan.<\/p>\n<p>Gruber also began a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.change.org\/p\/petition-in-support-of-the-dismissed-hamline-instructor-wrongly-accused-of-islamophobia\">petition<\/a> Hamline Board of Trustees demanding an outside investigation\u00a0that has garnered more than 900 signatures as of Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education\u00a0(FIRE) is <a href=\"https:\/\/mobile.twitter.com\/SabrinaConza\/status\/1606656969460400129\">investigating<\/a> The incident.\u00a0PEN America is a free expression organisation. <a href=\"https:\/\/pen.org\/press-release\/pen-america-cites-egregious-violation-of-academic-freedom-by-hamline-university\/\">condemned<\/a> Hamline\u2019s move, saying it appears to be an \u201cegregious violation\u201d of the professor\u2019s academic freedom.<\/p>\n<p>Hamline University didn&#8217;t respond to our request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Hamline University professor has apparently been fired because students complained about medieval paintings of Muhammad in an online art history class. During an October 6 class on Islamic art, the professor\u00a0showed two paintings, a famous 14th-century painting depicting Muhammad and the archangel Gabriel and a 16th-century painting of Muhammad with a veil and halo. &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":1789839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[6202,5231,12413,12412,12260,11251,4269,4861,6195],"class_list":["post-1789836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire","tag-daily","tag-fires","tag-hamline","tag-medieval","tag-muhammad","tag-paints","tag-professor","tag-university","tag-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1789836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1789836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1789836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1789839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1789836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1789836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1789836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}