A liberal arts professor at a Minnesota university has reportedly been fired after she showed her students images of the prophet Muhammad.
Hamline University adjunct professor Erika López Prater lost her job after featuring depictions of the religious figure despite her class being focused on Islamic art, according to the New York Times.
Prater reportedly preemptively placed warnings inside her course syllabus that the class would feature images of certain religious figures like Buddha and Muhammad. Students were asked by Prater to contact her with any concerns, but the New York Times says that none of them did so.
Depictions of the prophet Muhammad are prohibited by the religion of Islam as prophets are revered figures and therefore “infallible,” according to the organization “Diverse Educators.”
Despite Prater’s efforts and warnings, a senior named Aram Wedatalla joined her class and went to administrators to complain about the professor’s choice to display images of the prophet Muhammad, according to the school newspaper.
Wedatalla is president of the Muslim Student Association at Hamline University, and also reportedly gathered support from other Muslim students on campus about the issue, regardless of whether those students were taking Prater’s class or not.
