Hamline University dropped an art history professor after she showed her class two images of Muhammad and then defended the dismissal by declaring that respect for Muslim students “should have superseded academic freedom.”
Now the small Minnesota college is facing a national backlash as free-speech groups and academics rally behind Erika Lopez Prater, the professor whose contract was not renewed after a student complained about the lecture on Islamic art featuring 14th- and 16th-century illustrations of Islam’s prophet.
“If these reports are accurate, Hamline University has committed one of the most egregious violations of academic freedom in recent memory,” said Jeremy Young, senior manager of free expression and education at PEN America, who called for the professor to be reinstated.