Re-painting History: University Fires Professor for Sharing Image of Muhammed in Islamic Arts Class

Try to figure this one out: A professor was fired for Islamophobia after he shared a Muslim image of Islam’s most important religious figure in a class on Islamic art. If that doesn’t make sense to you, a Minnesota university would like to reeducate you.

In the earlier days of Islam, depictions of humans, including the Prophet Muhammed, were not taboo. Later, Islam turned iconoclastic and images of Muhammed — particularly his face — were condemned. This would not seem to have any application to a professor teaching American students about Islam and using a medieval image of the Muslim prophet to do so. But St. Paul, Minnesota’s Hamline University fired its Islamic arts instructor for showing his students an image of Mohammed from pre-iconoclast times, according to both The Siasat Daily and Jihad Watch.

For daring to show Islamic art in his Islamic art class, the unnamed instructor was reportedly accused by Hamline administrators of being “hateful, intolerant and Islamophobic” and hurting “the feeling of the Muslims” because of the ban on representations of Muhammed within modern Islam.

In the earlier days of Islam, depictions of humans, including the Prophet Muhammed, were not taboo. Later, Islam turned iconoclastic and images of Muhammed — particularly his face — were condemned. This would not seem to have any application to a professor teaching American students about Islam and using a medieval image of the Muslim prophet to do so. But St. Paul, Minnesota’s Hamline University fired its Islamic arts instructor for showing his students an image of Mohammed from pre-iconoclast times, according to both The Siasat Daily and Jihad Watch.

For daring to show Islamic art in his Islamic art class, the unnamed instructor was reportedly accused by Hamline administrators of being “hateful, intolerant and Islamophobic” and hurting “the feeling of the Muslims” because of the ban on representations of Muhammed within modern Islam.