Offensive art

Jan 8 2023 The Guardian

An art treasure long cherished by Muslims is deemed offensive. But to whom?

An instructor at Hamline University, Minnesota, displayed a painting found in a 14th-century Persian manuscript, the “Compendium of Chronicles”, a history of Islam. It shows the Prophet Muhammad receiving his first Quranic revelations from the angel Gabriel.

This was during an online class on Islamic art. The instructor had warned of what she was about to do in case anyone found the image offensive and did not wish to view it. But you guessed it, a student complained to the university authorities.

The university’s associate vice-president of inclusive excellence , condemned the classroom exercise as “undeniably inconsiderate, disrespectful and Islamophobic”.

The instructor had warned the students that she was going to show the painting; this was a class on Islamic art; and this is a 14th-century painting described as “a masterpiece of Persian manuscript painting”. This is not the Danish Cartoons or Charlie Hebdo, this can not be called Islamophobic.

Someone (the chair of the department of religion, no less) wrote a letter to the university’s student paper defending the instructor, and providing historical and religious context, but the letter was taken down from the website; because it “caused harm”. The chair wrote back to ask: “Are you saying that disagreement with an argument is a form of ‘harm’?”

And obviously “the instructor was “released” from further teaching duties”.

And this happens in a University, a place of learning where students should get an education and learn about cultures and learn to respect different points of view. Except that, to provide that education, you cannot show or do something if a student says so?

The end result here is that by defending inclusive diversity the university is diminishing diversity in education. How can it be a good thing, if “inclusive excellence” does not include excellent education?