Fired for showing art in an art history class? That doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t sound like the kind of headline that we’d be reading in 2023 but welcome to the story of Hamline University and Dr. Erika López Prater.
She also made sure to warn students verbally that these images would be shown, including minutes before they were shown, in case anyone would be offended and wanted to leave.
The painting is considered a masterpiece of Persian art but many Muslims don’t believe that any image of Muhammad should ever be shown. A single student complained, they were backed up by the Muslim Student Association and some community activists, and López Prater, an adjunct professor, was told that her services were no longer needed and that her actions were Islamophobic.
“The painting was not Islamophobic,” said the Muslim Public Affairs Council based in Washington.
“In fact, it was commissioned by a 14th-century Muslim king in order to honour the Prophet, depicting the first Quranic revelation from the angel Gabriel.”
Here are some things to consider that will put the actions of administrators like Marcela Kostihova, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, into perspective.
A single student complained, and the school caved even though they could have stood on the principle of academic freedom. They did so out of concern for diversity and not insulting Islam or Muslim students.
In doing so, Hamline is allowing one view of Islam to be predominant in a way they wouldn’t allow with other religions.
The same would happen if an Orthodox Jew decided that their religious views needed to be listened to and not only be the predominant view and interpretation of Judaism but that those views must be imposed on the entire student body. That would never happen, the school would view it as one student complaining and move on.
The administrators would reject the complaints from the Christian and Jewish students citing the need to embrace diversity at Hamline. Yet they also cite diversity as one of their reasons for firing López Prater.
This is a false diversity, one with a very limited, if any, understanding of Islam and the diversity that exists within the faith’s more than one billion adherents.
