Outrage Over an Image of Muhammad Is Itself Islamophobia
Students responsible for the firing of a Hamline University professor are trying to force their narrow definition of Islam on a diverse culture.
Real diversity.
Photographer: Money Sharma/AFP/Getty Images
In the name of combating Islamophobia, Hamline University in Minnesota has committed a particularly egregious exercise in Islamophobia.
Last October, Erika López Prater, an adjunct professor teaching a global art history class, included a masterpiece of 14th-century Islamic art depicting the Prophet Mohammed receiving Koranic revelations from the archangel Gabriel. Recognizing that some Muslims regard depictions of the prophet (and in some extreme cases, anyone at all) as blasphemous, she provided repeated advance warnings to her students, both in the course syllabus and in class.