An adjunct professor at a private Minnesota college was recently fired for
the grave grave mistake of showing a painting that depicts
the prophet Mohammed.
Now this is an art history class and we're talking about a lecturer.
So this is not a tenured professor and since she's not a tenured professor,
this is what can happen to her.
Now, she got fired despite repeatedly and I really want to emphasize this
warning students beforehand that religious icons would be shown in her class.
Now, let's get to the details of what happened and how this all played out.
Erika Lopez Prater, an adjunct professor at Hamline University,
said she knew many Muslims have deeply held religious beliefs that
prohibit depictions of the Prophet Mohammed.
So last semester for a global art history class, she took many precautions
before showing a 14th century painting of Islam's founder.
Now, what kind of precautions did she take exactly?
Well, repeated precautions first,
it's stated in the syllabus with warnings that there would be images
of holy figures including the prophet Muhammad and the Buddha.
She also asked students to contact her with any concerns and
she said that not a single one of her students did so.
In class, she warned students ahead of time that a painting of Mohammed was going
to be displayed.
So she was very specific, but that didn't seem to matter by the way,
we're just showing you random stock video of educators,
if you're wondering what that was.
Now she also talk for several minutes explaining why she was showing the images
and how standards have changed over time, even when it comes to the Muslim faith.
And even the disagreements within the Muslim faith in regard
to depictions of the prophet Mohammed?
Now, after she, gave all these warnings, asked the students to reach out to
her if they have any issues and no one did, she decided to show the painting.
It is one of the earliest Islamic illustrated histories of the world called
the compendium of Chronicles written by Rashad Alden during the 14th century.
Shown regularly, this is another important part to emphasize.
Shown regularly in art history classes.
The painting shows a winged and crowned Angel Gabriel pointing at
the Prophet Muhammad and delivering to him the first Quranic revelation.
Muslims believe that the Quran comprises the words of Allah dictated to
the prophet Mohammed through the Angel Gabriel.
Well, students ended up complaining about it and she got fired.
I'll give you the details in a moment.
You don't want to miss them.
But Cenk as a former Muslim, I'm very curious what you think about this story.
>> Yeah, absolutely absurd, totally indefensible.
So what are we doing here?
So now we can't show any art or any learnings.
I mean, I'm sure the supplies to other classes to that offends religious people.
Can we teach evolution in biology?
Is that allowed or is that gonna offend Muslims?
Is that gonna offend Christians, is it gonna offend Jews?
I don't know.
Are we allowed to teach it?
Are we allowed to teach that?
There actually is no God with an elephant's head and
eight arms or six arms or whatever in the real world, are we allowed to teach that?
Or I shouldn't say God, I should say there is no creature like that or
is that deeply offensive to Hindus know,
there is a creature like that really show me, I mean, what are we doing here?
This is absolutely absurd.
So, I grew up Muslim and I'm now atheist, but my entire family is Muslim, my
mom is Muslim, if my mom says, hey, Cenk, I don't want to draw the prophet Mohammed.
Well, that's on you.
God bless, no problem, right.
If she says, I don't want to see a painting of the prophet Muhammad.
Okay, God bless, no problem, right.
If she says now, none of you should see a painting of the prophet Muhammad,
I'd be like, wait, what?
No, no deal, that's not a thing.
So, and by the way, for the students there, I don't know,
man, do you guys live in the real world?
>> No. >> Well, you're about to write and
I got news for you.
Nobody's gonna give a damn about these insanely sensitive predilection,
is that you have, I must be protected from everything.
No, you must not, that's not how it works?
There are other religions, there are non religions,
there are other people from with different perspectives, grow up?
>> Yeah, so look for me, the biggest concern is the impact that these
sensitivities have on the quality of education in the country overall, right?
Because we live in a country that is incredibly diverse diversity of
background, whether we're talking about nationality, race, religion.
And so, knowing that it's really important to accept the fact that it is wrong for
any one group to essentially dictate the educational experience of everyone else.
Which is why I think the educator here,
the adjunct professor played it exactly right where she respected
the Muslim students in letting them know ahead of time multiple times.
This is what I'm gonna do in my class.
I understand that there are some Muslim students who might find this
offensive if you do please reach out to me and we'll find a solution.
But the sensitivities of the Muslim students in class should not dictate what
other students get to learn and what they don't get to learn.
I think that's wrong.
Whether we're talking about conservative parents,
going to school board meetings, yelling at teachers.
And school board members for
having books in the curriculum that they don't like having race based
teachings when they're crafting their American history curriculum.
It's not up to any one group to dictate or
control the entire curriculum, that is insane, right?
And in this case, if you don't like it.
If you're sensitive about it, you should have reached out to the educator,
you should have reached out to the lecture, let her know.
I'm not going to be there for that class because of my faith, I respect that,
I'd be fine with that 100%.
But again, I can't stand when people want to force their beliefs on other people and
that's what I see as the biggest problem here.
So after that class ended, Aram Wedatalla, a business major and
president of the university's Muslim student association
stuck around to voice her discomfort with being shown the image.
Immediately afterward Dr Lopez Prater sent an email to her department head
Allison Baker about this whole encounter, noting that the student,
she predicted that the student might complain.
Baker responded to the email four minutes later.
And what the email looked promising, it said,
it sounded like you did everything right, I believe in academic freedom.
So you have my support.
Now, as Dr Lopez Prater predicted the student in question here,
Wedatalla reached out to administrators.
Dr Lopez Prater with Ms. Baker's help wrote an apology, explaining
that sometimes diversity involves bringing contradicting uncomfortable and
coexisting truths into the conversation with each other.
I disagree with the apology.
I think the apology was the only mistake that Dr Lopez Prater made here,
why are you apologizing?
You gave ample warning?
What are we doing here, I just don't I really don't get it.
And by the way, this is really a nonpartisan effort by students.
Okay, so if you think that I'm picking on a Muslim student too much.
Now, I'm picking on all students who want to dictate what the curriculum is,
including self identified left wing students who
want to ban certain literary works on a college campus.
Because they want to hold today's standards like rhetorical standards,
against literary works from decades, sometimes centuries ago.
They used words in their writings that I don't like.
>> Yeah. >> It's called tough day for you.
You can't use today's standards to judge work from decades ago.
>> Yeah, this is where the extreme left and the extreme right agree.
the extreme right says I want to ban books.
I don't like that.
Mention the fact that gay people even exist.
I want a band, I don't like them.
They offend my religious sensibility.
And extreme left says,
I don't like anything that shows a painting of the prophet Muhammad.
It offends my religious sensibility.
I want a band and I want everybody fired.
Right wing says I want everybody fired canceled fire the board school board fire
the teachers fire the librarians.
No, the problem is you guys not the rest of us, 95% of us don't believe that.
And if you think, yeah, I know, I am the majority.
Are you?
Yeah, go ask Americans.
If they think that this professor should be fired,
you'll find out you're in a tiny, tiny tiny minority.
And by the way, you're also probably a minority within the Muslim faith.
So look as a person who grew up Muslim, let me explain something to you,
Muslims are not a monolith, just like Christians are not a monolith,
Americans are not a monolith, right?
So this is not even in the Quran, this is some teaching that
some Muslims believe in a lot of Muslims don't believe.
So, for example, I gave the example of my mom earlier, but she doesn't believe this
tons of secular Muslims, modern Muslims or just Muslims that believe in the Quran.
And don't believe into different interpretations done later by religious
leaders for their own purposes.
There's tons of different interpretations.
I don't even think that their version is the majority in Muslim belief.
In fact, why does this painting exist in the first place?
Is it a painting that mocks prophet Mohammed?
No, not at all.
It's not like the caricatures,
this is actually a Persian masterpiece and it's Archangel Gabriel,
I believe giving the chronic text to Mohammed as it is described in the Quran.
And why was that acceptable in Muslim Empire back then,
like the Persian empire because a lot of Muslims didn't think there was
anything wrong with painting the prophet Mohammed back then.
So you don't even represent all Muslims and the most extreme always
pretend like they represent everyone, no all Muslims want this banned.
And if you don't ban it, that you're offending all Muslims,
that's not remotely true.
And look at this absurdity that Hamlin's president Fayneese Miller wrote,
she said that the respect for
Muslim students quote should have superseded academic freedom.
And out of town hall and invited Muslim speaker compared showing the images,
the teaching, that Hitler was good.
>> Come on.
>> Come on, that's not remotely true.
Okay, no, you're taking some what I view to be a fundamentalist, extreme
interpretation of Islam and demanding that not only all Muslims follow it.
But that all non Muslims follow it, insanity, we do not agree,
you don't speak for us, and people like this actually ruin it for everyone else.
Because then they people go, I guess the left wing does cancel culture,
the left wing is in favor of this.
No, the people, you most agree with our extreme right wingers.
>> Listen, if you're gonna spend a ton of money to go to a college and
obtain a higher education, okay, you want to get educated,
you don't want to engage in ridiculous sensitivity politics.
So if I'm shelling out thousands of dollars to get a degree and
I know that my education is being compromised because the administrators
are terrified of students who are overly sensitive.
And have decided no giving me enough warning and giving me an opportunity to
make arrangements with the professor is not enough.
I'm not interested in that college campus.
And I just feel like all of this is making everyone dumber because again,
how many different groups get to dictate what the curriculum is?
You have the educators, you have the people who went through the school and
got the credentials have the expertise to teach the classes,
having to bow their heads to the very students they're tasked with educating.
I think that is insane.
Now, if there was any indication that this lecturer was actually discriminatory or
discriminative towards these students, then I would have completely different
commentary, but there is absolutely no evidence that that's the case.
And for all the students who get super offended at every little thing.
Even with the professor or lecture giving you warning and
making arrangements for you.
You need to really rethink whether or not you want to get a college education, okay?
And you also need to rethink whether you are fit to ever have any
kind of conversation where someone doesn't agree with 100% of what you say.
In the real world, you're not gonna come across, people are constantly agreeing
with you and if that's what you want, that's what you seek.
Your stunting your own mental and emotional growth in my opinion.
>> Look, I'll go further.
Not only should the professor not have been fired.
I think that students should have gotten a very poor grade and
I'll tell you why are you hard of hearing?
She warned you over and over and
over again that she was gonna show you the painting.
Apparently you weren't paying attention at all.
Then when she shows you the painting, you're like all of a sudden, I'm outraged.
Well, I don't were you paying attention to any of the material?
It's just absurd.
Look, I'm gonna read last quotes here.
Dr Miller is the school's president now it's a different role.
They they said to look upon the image of the prophet Mohammed for
many Muslims is against their faith, to which I would say.
So what?
Too many Muslims and Christians teaching evolution is against their faith.
Do we shut down the biology department?
What kind of insane standard is it?
>> My understanding is that the lecturer here does not wear a headdress
a headscarf and that is deeply offensive to some Muslims.
So should she be fired for refusing to wear a hijab?
I mean, how far does this go?
>> It's against their faith for some Muslims?
It's not against all of our faiths.
And by the way, I'm an atheist,
I'm offended that we're not showing the painting?
Why aren't we showing the painting?
My education is going to be diminished.
I'm not allowed to see certain paintings, I'm not allowed to read certain books,
even though they're masterpieces and by the way, from my own culture.
I'm Turkish, but Persians are cousins and their Muslim, like we are,
I'm not allowed to see my own culture because it offends someone else's faith.
What are we doing here?
Are we having an open conversation?
Are we teaching people anything real or are we just doing stupid dogma?
That's political correctness.
And last part of the Miller quote was it was important that our Muslim
students as well as other students feel safe, supported and respected,
both in and out of our classrooms.
No, I don't think that's important.
So if you say physically safe, absolutely, if you say no,
all of our students need to be mentally safe, not challenged by any other thoughts
that they weren't brainwashed into as children from their particular religion.
But then you're not really running a university, you're running something else.
But it's not a place for higher learning because in a place for
higher learning, you're supposed to be challenged and
the teacher is not supposed to worry about how much they respect you.
They're supposed to encourage you and bring out the best in you and your
education is supposed to be more holistic than just teaching the masterpieces etc.
And yes, we should get from every background and
not just a white background, not just a Christian background, but by the way,
that's what she was trying to do.
[LAUGH] okay, so, but you are not supposed to be in a bubble where you
go to a college and all they do is feed your preconceived notions so
that you feel respected and safe.
If that's what you think education is, you just don't literally don't understand
what the concept of education is and you refuse to be educated.