Aram Wedatalla, a Hamline University senior and the president of Muslim Student Association, was the first to file a complaint against Hamline University lecturer Erika L?pez Prater. The professor showed a painting of the Prophet Muhammad and Wedatalla was one of the students in the class when the image was displayed. AP
The depictions of Prophet Muhammad are forbidden. Yet a professor in the United States showed a painting of Islam’s founder to her class. After an uproar, Erika L?pez Prater lost her job. But she is not the one to take things lying down and has now decided the sue the university.
We take a look at what happened and what’s next for Prater.
What happened in Prater’s class?
Prater was an adjunct professor at Hamline University, in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she taught art history. During one of the classes on Islamic art held in October, she showed a 14th-century painting of the Prophet.
The syllabus reportedly warned that images of holy figures, including Muhammad and the Buddha, would be shown in the course. The professor asked students to contact her if they had concerns and even informed them before displaying the painting, in case anyone wanted to leave, according to a report in The New York Times (NYT). Prater claimed that no one did.
After the class, a 23-year-old student complained to the university administration. Other Muslim students, who were not enrolled in the course, backed her, saying that displaying the Prophet’s picture was an attack on religion.
Why were students outraged?
Many Muslims believe that visual portrayals of Prophet Muhammad are forbidden and seen as a violation of faith.
Muslims believe that verses in the holy book suggest that Allah and His prophets cannot be captured in an image by human hand – such is God’s grandeur, according to a report in Al Jazeera. Any such attempt, the understanding goes, only leads towards idolatry, where the representations themselves can become the object of worship. There are also references in the Hadith (the sayings of the Prophet) prohibiting pictorial art or any depiction of the Divine.
Aram Wedatalla, the Sudanese student who was the first to make the complaint, said, “It just breaks my heart that I have to stand here to tell people that something is Islamophobic and something actually hurts all of us, not only me.”
She told a school newspaper in December that she felt disrespected. “I’m like, ‘This can’t be real’,” said. “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.”
Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, speaks during a news conference at CAIR-office, in Minneapolis. The national headquarters of CAIR has spoken in favour of the professor. AP
What happened next?
After the complaint, the university officials decided not to renew the professor’s contract. She was informed that her services were no longer needed.
Hamline’s president, Fayneese Miller, co-signed an email that said respect for Muslim students “should have superseded academic freedom”, reports NYT.
In a statement, Miller defended the decision that cost Prater her job. “To look upon an image of the Prophet Muhammad, for many Muslims, is against their faith,” his statement said, adding, “It was important that our Muslim students, as well as all other students, feel safe, supported and respected both in and out of our classrooms.”
What is Prater saying?
Prater is an adjunct, one of higher education’s underclass of teachers, working for little pay and receiving few of the workplace protections enjoyed by tenured faculty members, the NYT report points out.
She has decided to take on Hamline University and has announced plans to sue it. Her lawyers have said that the suit reiterated the fact that the professor had warned students and alleged that the institution subjected Prater to religious discrimination and defamation, and damaged her professional and personal reputation, according to a report in Al Jazeera.
“Among other things, Hamline, through its administration, has referred to Dr Lopez Prater’s actions as ‘undeniably Islamophobic,'” her attorneys said in a statement. “Comments like these, which have now been published in news stories around the globe, will follow Dr Lopez Prater throughout her career, potentially resulting in her inability to obtain a tenure track position at any institution of higher education.”
Hamline University chose not to renew Professor Prater’s contract. AP
Has Prater received support?
The decision to not renew her contract has triggered a debate in the US about academic freedom. An Islamic art historian wrote an essay defending Prater and started a petition demanding the university’s board investigate the matter, the NYT reports.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the country’s largest Muslim civil rights organisation, has also stepped in and noted that some Muslim groups throughout history “did draw paintings depicting the Prophet hundreds of years after his passing”.
“Based on what we know up to this point, we see no evidence that former Hamline University Adjunct Professor Erika Lopez Prater acted with Islamophobic intent or engaged in conduct that meets our definition of Islamophobia,” the group said in a statement.
“Un-Islamic is not always the same thing as Islamophobic. Academics should not be condemned as bigots without evidence or lose their positions without justification,” it added.
Free-speech groups and publications have come out in support of Prater. PEN America called it “one of the most egregious violations of academic freedom in recent memory.”
What is Hamline University saying?
The university has not responded to the lawsuit but has announced it will hold two public conversations, one on academic freedom and student care and the other on academic freedom and religion.
After reading the recent articles and opinion pieces, the university has said it will “review and re-examine” its actions. In a statement released on Tuesday, Miller and its Board of Trustees Chair Ellen Watters said, “Like all organisations, sometimes we misstep… In the interest of hearing from and supporting our Muslim students, language was used that does not reflect our sentiments on academic freedom. Based on all that we have learned, we have determined that our usage of the term ‘Islamophobic’ was therefore flawed.”
With inputs from agencies
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