I fled to U.S. for education, not indoctrination

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Hamline University dismissed an art historian adjunct last fall for ‎showing a caricature of Prophet Muhammad receiving Islamic ‎instructions from the angel Gabriel. The dismissal was a ‎response to Muslim students who were offended by the image, proclaiming that the professor committed the unforgivable sin of ‎Islamophobia. The story has garnered attention and spurred a debate on the ‎conundrum between academic freedom and religious rights.

As a Muslim who studied Islam ‎traditionally in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, and academically at the University of Miami and University of Pennsylvania, I am ‎not offended by caricatures of Prophet Muhammad, or any holy figure for that matter.

The prophet of Islam said that "deeds are judged by ‎their intention," a classical principle in the reasoning of Islamic law. ‎Prof. Erika Lopez Prater, who showed the image to her ‎class, took precautions to ensure that her intention was ‎educational and not comical. For example, in the course's syllabus, she warned students that prophetic images would be displayed in class, and no ‎student raised any objections.

‎From an Islamic perspective, her actions ‎should be judged according to her educational intention.

There is a debate within the Islamic tradition itself about whether prophetic images are permitted or prohibited. ‎Regardless of that debate, however, classroom discussions should not be regulated according to a particular strand in the religion. It behooves students to have a full discussion of Islam in the classroom. On many topics ‎in Islamic law, Muslim scholars have argued for competing ‎positions, ranging from liberal to the conservative, the ‎beautiful to the ugly, the tolerant to the intolerant.

For example, Omid Safi, an Islamic studies professor at Duke ‎University, makes no objections to showing images of the Prophet ‎Muhammad. He regularly shows such images in his classes at ‎Duke, even without taking the precautionary measures that Lopez Prater took. ‎However, other scholars and leaders may inherently oppose prophetic drawings, regardless of the intention in displaying them.

Safi fled Iran for the United ‎States when he was 14. That personal history perhaps affects whether students interpret his behavior as Islamophobic or not. However, Lopez Prater has a different background that ‎perhaps led students to interpret her behavior within a hostile ‎framework.

In other words, scholars who hail from Islamic ‎cultures — whether perceived or real, whatever that means — are less likely to suffer from accusations of ‎Islamophobia. A white Christian scholar from ‎Boston or Minnesota is more likely to suffer the charge than ‎a Muslim scholar teaching in Cairo or Morocco. This is confusing at best. ‎

U.S. colleges and universities treat foreign and local students differently. In particular, there is a difference between foreign and American Muslims. Foreign Muslims tend to have a different engagement with Islam, viewing the religion from a theological perspective. American Muslims may view Islam from an identity perspective, primarily concerning themselves with the politics of representation.

Unfortunately, many U.S. colleges and universities lump those two groups together and often ignore the voices of foreign Muslims.

Many Americans don't know much about religions in general or Islam in particular. Shunning a professor who showed an image of Prophet Muhammad will only discourage Americans from learning about the tradition of Islam, as they will be afraid to expose themselves to unwarranted controversy. Yet, as a Muslim, I would like more people to explore the history of Islam.

A better way of handling the controversy at Hamline would be to arrange a discussion on the question of prophetic caricatures. That would have been a better learning experience for students.

When I fled to the United States from Yemen, I sought a liberal education through which to reconsider the retrograde views I learned as a child. I came here to learn how to become a scholar who independently investigates subjects fraught with moral ambiguity. In other words, I was ready to receive an education — not an indoctrination.

Alas, the recent trend in U.S. higher education seems to emphasize political correctness over critical inquiry. It seems to silence intellectual curiosity as we enter the age when religious conformity trumps academic freedom.

Abdulrahman Bindamnan is a Ph.D. student and a scholar fellow at the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change at the University of Minnesota.