Case was ‘ resolved to the common achievement of the parties,’ lawyer says
A lawsuit was filed this week by an alternative arts teacher who sued Hamline University after receiving criticism for her portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad.
Some people praised the negotiation between art historian Erika López Prater and the secret university, though the details are still unknown.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression responded on X,” While the term are sealed, it’s another recall that banning university will cost you.”
However, Prater’s attorney David Redden told the Associated Press” the problem was resolved to the common achievement of the events”.
After she depicted the Muslim apostle Muhammad in a historical context in a group, Prater filed the lawsuit in 2023, according to The College Fix at the time. Some Muslims object to depictions of religious figures like Muhammad because they view them as a form of worship.
In an article for New Lines Magazine at the time, Christiane Gruber, a teacher of Islamic skill at the University of Michigan, wrote that” a student complained about the article’s participation in the course and led efforts to push officials for a answer.”
” After that, the university’s associate vice president of inclusive excellence ( AVPIE ) declared the classroom exercise’ undeniably inconsiderate, disrespectful and Islamophobic,'” Gruber wrote.
According to Gruber, one of the paintings ( pictured ) that Prater showed was a depiction of Muhammad with a veil and halo from a manuscript from the 15th century that is now housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Eventually, Prater claimed that her training contract had not been renewed. In her complaint, she accused the school of slander, “emotional distress”, and “violations of the Minnesota Whistleblower Act”, The Fix reported.
” Hamline engaged in conduct toward López Prater that was extraordinary and outrageous”, her attorneys argued. This included “intentionally and formally denouncing López Prater, a teacher at an institution of higher learning, as Islamophobic and engaging in an’ work of hatred.'”
According to the lawsuit, school officials “maximized ] her emotional distress by announcing her termination before her last day of class, and assisting and/or facilitating her further public defamation and humiliation,” which led to her” severe emotional distress and physical manifestations of the same” as well.
In a 2023 meeting with FIRE, Prater defended her behavior. She argued that professors should challenge students “in ways that are sometimes nervous” because doing so can give them fresh ideas.
The importance of challenging individuals as a educational resource in the classroom is emphasized by Professor Erika López Prater, an alternative professor who was non-renewed by @HamlineU for exercising her straight to intellectual freedom. photograph. twitter.com/5HwntagWoT
— FIRE (@TheFIREorg ) January 17, 2023
Further: Hamline University is suing for the dismissal of a teacher who showed images of the Prophet Muhammad.
IMAGE: Cora Timken Burnett Collection of Persian Miniatures and Another Persian Art Materials, Bequest of Cora Timken Burnett, 1956
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