Sharia State University: San Francisco State University persecutes a professor for displaying an image of Muhammad.
BY LLOYD BILLINGSLEY
SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/sharia-state-university/;
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
Last month, swimmer Riley Gaines came to San Francisco State University to discuss the fairness of men competing against women. A man wearing a dress assaulted Gaines and a crazed trans mob forced the NCAA champion to take refuge in a barricaded room.
SFSU president Lynn Mahoney (pictured above right) said Gaines’ message was “deeply traumatic for many in our trans and LGBTQ+ communities,” and proclaimed, “To our trans community, please know how welcome you are. We will turn this moment into an opportunity to listen and learn about how we can better support you.” That’s a tough act to follow, but SFSU is up to the task.
“San Francisco State is trying to railroad a professor who showed a portrait of the prophet Muhammad in his history class,” reports Evan Gahr of the California Globe. “The school is investigating the professor for supposed harassment.”
Last fall, SFSU associate professor of history Maziar Behrooz was teaching his class on the history of the Islamic world between 500 and 1700. Professor Behrooz showed a drawing of the Prophet Muhammad, as he has done for many years, without any objection from the class. This time a single student claimed that all images of Muhammad were forbidden and complained to the department chair.
Behrooz countered that the student’s view is not shared by all Muslims, that the same portrait of Muhammad is sold at marketplaces in Tehran, and that many Shiite Muslims have drawings of Muhammad in their homes. The student then took his complaint to the next level.
In March, the university’s Office of Equity Programs and Compliance told Behrooz it was launching an investigation. According to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) and the Middle East Studies Association of North America, the image of Muhammad was “pedagogically relevant to the course at issue.” Both groups asked SFSU to discontinue the investigation, on First Amendment and academic freedom grounds.
A mouthpiece for president Mahoney said SFSU had a “duty” to respond to all reports of discrimination, and harassment. Once an investigation is started, SFSU “has a limited ability to discuss it.” The complaining student, unnamed, isn’t talking to reporters.
Professor Behrooz would not tell the California Globe what happened in his April “interview” but did indicate that the issue is “pending.” That portends the possibility of discipline or worse.
In Minnesota, Hamline University recently fired adjunct professor Erica Lopez Prater for showing students images of the prophet Muhammad, including a 14th-century painting. The images prompted a complaint from at least one student.
Professor Prater’s purpose was to show that there is “no one monothetic Islamic culture.” FIRE and PEN America advanced the First Amendment and academic freedom arguments, and Professor Prater apologized. It was all to no avail.
Hamline bosses deemed the showing of the images “disrespectful and Islamophobic” and dismissed Lopez Prater. The proceedings against the professors raise disturbing issues.
At private and state institutions, Islamic law and custom are taking precedence over American law and academic liberties. When Professor Behrooz accepted the SFSU job, he did not cede his First Amendment rights. Freedom of choice also comes into play.
The complaining student was perfectly free to unroll at universities in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, or Qatar. That student chose a public American institution under American law. San Francisco State University has allowed the complaint of a single student, disputed on its own terms, to upend longstanding rights and practices. This development does not exhaust the concerns of Professor Behrooz.
Islam teaches that men are men and women are women, and also that Allah has made men superior to women. If men fear disobedience from a wife, they may beat her. Members of other religions are to be shunned, jihad waged against the unbelievers. And safe to say, there is no such thing as gay rights or trans rights under Islam.
Last year, Islamic scholar Sheikh Yousef Abu Islam criticized Gay Pride Month and said that Allah has commanded that homosexuals should be thrown head first off the highest rooftops and then stoned. This was the Islamic State’s favored method of executing homosexuals.
So far, the LBGTQ+ community has not mounted a “peaceful” protest against Professor Behrooz or Muslim groups on campus. Were they to do so, it would be interesting to see how SFSU bosses would respond.
San Francisco State’s privileged “trans community” prefers to attack swimmer Riley Gaines, who stands five foot 7. She wants to discuss the fairness of competing against the likes of Lia Thomas, a 6–foot-one male, rudder intact, who thinks he’s a woman. A crazed mob menaces Gaines and SFSU basically sides with the attackers.
No word of any investigations of the sort Professor Behrooz must endure for exercising his academic freedom and displaying pedagogically relevant material. Everything’s up to date at Sharia State University, but they haven’t gone as far as they can go.
