By BERNIE BELLAN (Posted March 6, 2024) In October 2022 an art history teacher by the name of Erika Lopéz Prater was fired from her position at a small liberal arts college in Minnesota, Humline University, for having the temerity to show depictions of the Prophet Muhammed to students in her art history class

Lopéz Prater had warned students in advance that images of holy figures, including the Prophet Muhammed and the Bhudda, would be shown in the course and had asked students to contact her with any concerns, but she said no one did.

One student in the class, Aram Wedatalla, who was also president of the Muslim Student Association, however, claimed to have been deeply offended by the image of Muhammed that was displayed and complained to the university administration. Subsequently Lopéz Prater was fired from her position. As an adjunct professor, however, she did not have the protections granted to tenured professors.

Lopéz Prater later sued Humline on several grounds, including unfair dismissal and emotional distress, but a judge has since dismissed almost all elements of her lawsuit.

What happened to Lopéz Prater though and the ensuing controversy provided a salutary lesson in political correctness running amuck – and the power of members of certain groups to intimidate university administrations and student groups into total acquiescence to their demands to silence any type of discussion that some members of those groups may deem objectionable.

Such apparently was also the case recently at the University of Manitoba where a Muslim speaker by the name of Bassim Eid spoke to students at that university on Monday, February 26. The event was sponsored by two groups: Bridges for Peace and Students Supporting Israel.

According to a CBC report describing what happened at that event and subsequent to it, “Political analyst Bassem Eid, a Palestinian who is a regular commentator on Israeli TV and radio, gave a lecture at a Monday event at the University of Manitoba, organized by Bridges for Peace and Students Supporting Israel, called: ‘What led to the recent war between Israel and Hamas.’

” ‘When it comes to ideology, the Muslims are blind,’ Eid is heard saying during the event’s question period, in audio reviewed by CBC News. He can also be heard calling the ideology of Muslims ‘a major problem,’ saying they aren’t ready for change.

“Belkis Elmoudi, a Muslim student at the university who attended the event, says she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

” ‘I knew I had to get out of there, because I did not feel safe,’ she told CBC News on Thursday (February 29).

” ‘I mean not only were those comments made, [but] no one stood up and said anything, so it just made me feel very isolated, alone and scared.’

Following Eid’s talk and the subsequent complaint made by Elmoudi, the University of Manitoba Students Union decided to suspend Students Supporting Israel, according to UMSU President Tracy Karuhogo, “while an investigation into the event takes place.”

We have attempted to obtain a response from someone from UMSU as to the reasons that Students Supporting Israel has been suspended.

We posed the following questions within an email on Monday, March 4:

“1. Is the suspension still in effect?

“2. If the answer to 1 is yes, can someone explain the reasons behind the suspension?

“3. Is it now UMSU’s policy to suspend an entire group because one student has a complaint about something related to that group?

“4. If UMSU does believe it was justified in suspending Students Supporting Israel, is there anything that would prevent any other student from asking that the Muslim Students Association at the University of Manitoba be suspended for any activities that a student might consider threatening? In other words, where do you draw the line?”

To date, we have not received a response. If we do hear back from someone from UMSU we will update this article.

We also emailed Jeff Lieberman and Adam Levy of the Jewish Federation, along with Gustavo Zentner, CIJA representative for Manitoba and Saskatchewan, asking them whether anyone from either group had attempted to intervene in the matter. (We also cc’d Haskell Greenfield, Head of Judaic Studies at the U of M.) In addition, we have reached out to a representative for Students Supporting Israel. Again, if we hear back from that person we will update this article.

We wrote:

“I’ve been trying to get more information about the suspension of Students Supporting Israel…the notion that the group has been suspended by UMSU is pretty outrageous. Does anyone know what the status of that suspension is?

“This all reminds me of a story I read last year about a Minnesota college professor who was fired from her position teaching art history at a very small college because she dared to show depictions of Muhammed.

“Apparently, even though she had told students in advance that she would be doing that – and asked whether anyone in the class objected, a Muslim student (who hadn’t spoken out prior) later claimed that they were traumatized by seeing those images.

“It all has to do with “trigger warnings”‘ and how any student can silence discussion by saying they’re traumatized by that discussion.

“Has the Federation or CIJA intervened in this matter?”

We received the following response from Adam Levy, Public Relations and Communications Director for the Jewish Federation:

“Hi Bernie,

“Thank you for reaching out regarding the suspension of Students Supporting Israel (SSI).

“Federation and CIJA have been actively advising and supporting SSI as they navigate this challenging time. We are hopeful that the investigation that has been undertaken by UMSU will clear SSI of wrongdoing, and not hold them accountable for Bassem Eid’s comments.”

We also received the following email from Haskell Greenfield:

“In his talk, Bassam made some generalizations about the ideology of Muslims. He has issued an apology since then. But the student union at the University acted precipitously, I would say rashly. They suspended SSI pending an investigation without contacting the SSI student club first. It is a recognized club for the University of Manitoba Students Union.  They suspended the SSI because a Palestinian student made a complaint. They did the suspension solely on the complaint and without contacting SSI to get their point of view. We believe that SSI is working toward explaining their side of the story and hoping for reinstatement. SSI did not make any negative statements about Arabs or Muslims or Palestinians. In fact the moderator at the event disavowed the statement afterwards, saying this does not represent SSI or his own beliefs.

“The same day SSI was suspended, a motion was also put forward by the executive of the University of Manitoba Students Union that would define a new form of anti-Palestinian racism. This very problematic motion prevents anyone from denying the ‘Nakhba.’ It would make denying the ‘Nakhba’ a racist act.”