1/16/2023
Islamic World Scholar: Hamline Mistaken to Fire Instructor
Rounduptags: Islam, art history, academic freedom
I can imagine no greater disservice to Muslim students than the recent events at Hamline University, a small liberal arts school in Minnesota, that ended with a teacher getting fired for showing a depiction of the Prophet Muhammad.
Aram Wedatalla, an undergraduate business major of Sudanese extraction, effectively “canceled” the teachings of one of the greatest historians of the Islamic world, Rashid al-Din Fadlullah (1247–1318 AD), in the name of sensitivity to Muslim students.
The controversial image shows Muhammad receiving his first revelation from the archangel Gabriel. This miniature painting appears in the canonical Jami al-Tawarikh, (Compendium of Chronicles) written in Persian at the outset of the 14th century, one of the most crucial sources on Mongol culture and history. I treasure my own copy of the magisterial work, which I have read with great care for my upcoming book on the period between the twin invasions of Iran by Genghis Khan and Tamerlane (1219-1393.)
I can imagine no greater disservice to Muslim students than the recent events at Hamline University, a small liberal arts school in Minnesota, that ended with a teacher getting fired for showing a depiction of the Prophet Muhammad.
Aram Wedatalla, an undergraduate business major of Sudanese extraction, effectively “canceled” the teachings of one of the greatest historians of the Islamic world, Rashid al-Din Fadlullah (1247–1318 AD), in the name of sensitivity to Muslim students.
The controversial image shows Muhammad receiving his first revelation from the archangel Gabriel. This miniature painting appears in the canonical Jami al-Tawarikh, (Compendium of Chronicles) written in Persian at the outset of the 14th century, one of the most crucial sources on Mongol culture and history. I treasure my own copy of the magisterial work, which I have read with great care for my upcoming book on the period between the twin invasions of Iran by Genghis Khan and Tamerlane (1219-1393.)
comments powered by Disqus
News
- Josh Hawley Earns F in Early American History
- Does Germany's Holocaust Education Give Cover to Nativism?
- "Car Brain" Has Long Normalized Carnage on the Roads
- Hawley's Use of Fake Patrick Henry Quote a Revealing Error
- Health Researchers Show Segregation 100 Years Ago Harmed Black Health, and Effects Continue Today
- Nelson Lichtenstein on a Half Century of Labor History
- Can America Handle a 250th Anniversary?
- New Research Shows British Industrialization Drew Ironworking Methods from Colonized and Enslaved Jamaicans
- The American Revolution Remains a Hotly Contested Symbolic Field
- Untangling Fact and Fiction in the Story of a Nazi-Era Brothel