The Council on American-Islamic Relations isn’t shy about leveling accusations of Islamophobia, but not even CAIR believes that a Minnesota professor who showed medieval artwork of Muhammad crossed the line.
The Muslim-rights group came to the defense Friday of former Hamline University adjunct professor Erika Lopez Prater, overriding its Minnesota chapter after it condemned as Islamophobic the display of two historic images of the Muslim prophet during an Oct. 6 online art class.
“Although we strongly discourage showing visual depictions of the Prophet, we recognize that professors who analyze ancient paintings for an academic purpose are not the same as Islamophobes who show such images to cause offense,” the national organization said in a statement.