Posted by Eugene Volokh:
Mohammed Cartoons in the Classroom, in the News:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2006_02_12-2006_02_18.shtml#1140199552
[1]The Colorado State University Collegian reports on what happened
when Professor James Lindsey showed three of the Mohammed cartoons --
"includ[ing] a satirical sketch of the prophet wearing a bomb on top
of his head and another that depicted him wielding a sword, surrounded
by women" -- to his about 125-student Islamic history class. They
originated from a Danish newspaper.
Zaki Safar, vice president of the Muslim Student Association, said
the cartoons make the holy figure out to be a terrorist and a "sex
maniac" who oppresses women.
"The one with the bomb on his head was the worst," the Saudi Arabia
native said, still teary-eyed just after 2 p.m., when class let
out. "I cried with tears in the middle of the class."
Other students chuckled at the cartoons or were puzzled at the
reaction, he said.
The professor, James Lindsay, said he presented the cartoons in
response to student inquiries; several students told him they did
not understand the logic behind the anger over the cartoons.
Normally, he said, he stays away from addressing current events in
the history course, but this time he decided to take the
opportunity to offer students some context....
He showed the Danish-drawn cartoons lampooning Muslims and
Muslim-drawn cartoons satirizing Europeans and Jews, along with
historical and modern Islamic texts and art....
What's worse is that these and other cartoons widen the gap between
Islamic and Western cultures, Safar said, and that's exactly what
his student group is trying to combat.
He said freedom of speech should be used responsibly and not give
such a powerful voice to the most ignorant in each culture....
Students interviewed on campus Thursday afternoon generally
supported the professor's decision, so long as the presentation was
tactful.... But Safar was firm in his belief that the blasphemy
should simply not have been shown.
"(Lindsay) made a huge mistake by putting up the cartoons," Safar
said. "Not only that, he's making the gap between the three
religions bigger and bigger.... Making chaos between people -- I
don't think that's the correct way of achieving peace." ...
"My job is not to bring people together," Lindsay said. "My job is
to teach history. History is not pleasant in many cases, and I made
it very clear in class that this is America and you all have the
right to offend but you do not have the right to not be offended."
References
1. http://www.collegian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/02/10/43ec2e0100b18
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