There’s a difference between a professor being opinionated in class and teaching racism to students. Unfortunately, that line is sometimes crossed.
I sat down with a friend at lunch last week. While telling me about her day, she expressed frustration at one of her professor’s lectures from the morning.
The class started with a video about radical Muslims, which was not part of the planned lesson. My friend told me the video, which taught about terrorism and the one percent of Islam with radical followers, was very educational and insightful. Then came the professor’s lecture.
He started off after the video by telling his students to disregard the video’s statistics: The majority of Muslims are radical extremists, and Muslims are raised to hate America. The class laughed along with him as he ridiculed the Muslim beliefs and practices, saying it was ridiculous they still worshiped the moon as their god – which, by the way, is completely untrue.
When my friend described this lecture-rant to me, my jaw dropped.
I could not comprehend how a teacher could have the nerve to blatantly preach racism to a class.
I understand the importance of learning about current global issues and conflicts, but this is extreme. I cannot see any truth in the clouded lies this professor was offering. Granted, there is a strong sense of disconnection between America and the Middle Eastern culture. To say they all hate us and that they are stupid for what they believe, though, infuriates me.
My friend told me how offended she was at this lecture, and I agreed. Sadly, she sat there during the lecture and said nothing.
I can’t blame her – she was scared of her standing in the class or her teacher’s opinion of her being affected. Come to find out, a few of her classmates felt the exact same way.
The point of all this is not to point fingers or fuel an argument. It is to call out an issue that should not exist. Fort Hays State University is a globally diverse school, so to hear about something like this happening in a classroom is unbelievable. To all our Muslim or foreign students: I hope you are as offended as I was – you should be. Regardless of who you are, I hope you can see that this sort of teaching is not acceptable.
If you are ever taught anything as wrong, biased or even racist as this, do not be afraid to stand up. You will not be the only one. Let your voice be heard, and hopefully one day our educational system will be free of such flaws.
This makes me so sad. We as a university are supposed to be teaching our students to be “world ready” but instead we have teachers that are trying to push this awful hate onto students who I’m sure have already been influenced by the awful media we see. This isn’t a God issue or a Muslim issue, this is a racism and discrimination issue. We can’t be expected to get anything done in terms of peace if we have teachers like this running around the halls of this school spreading hate. I have middle eastern friends btw none of which hate me or the American population. You can’t generalize one extreme onto a whole population. This is disturbing.
Actually, it IS considered racism.
Look at the Holocaust. The Holocaust is taught in almost every history class as “Hitler was racist against Jews.” Judaism is a religion. Not a people. Discrimination against religion is absolutely a form of racism.
Secondly, Tyler and Gregory, your facts are wrong. On the most basic of levels, you’re quoting the Quran, not the Koran. On the actual meaty part of your subject, they are not taught to dominate the world. At all. They are taught their religion is the “right” religion, which is the same as any church you attend. Catholics believe all who aren’t Catholic will go to hell. Mormons believe that by being Mormon they receive a higher ring of heaven. Muslims actually believe anyone can reach “heaven”, as long as they are good people and don’t sin, and they will receive 72 virgins. They are not taught to hate Americans, or Christians, or the west. Certain radical minority groups preach that the American way is sinful. By saying they are all taught this practice, it’s like saying all Catholics are into little boys or all Mormons are polygamists. It’s a stereotype based on radical minority groups in history, and in no way applies to the group as a whole.
Get educated before you try and deflect an opinion you don’t like. Obviously the professor should be more careful and considerate of his students, regardless of whether he was joking or actually teaching inappropriate bias.
First of all, it is not racism. Islam and its followers (Muslims), are a religious sect, not a racial group. I have taken this class, and I would advise getting your facts right before you go around posting liberalized views of a fellow student. I will stand behind the material that is being taught. I am glad a Professor is willing to go against what might be politically correct to inform students from a new perspective. I really hope that this article did not make the printed version of you paper, because tainted news does not deserve to be printed or posted.
In God we trust, and we believe.
As a matter of fact, this DID make the printed version of the paper. Mainly, all articles published online are published in the paper. That’s why we’re a newspaper. Not a blog.
And if you didn’t notice, Tyler, this is an opinion. Any kind of view deserves to be printed or posted. Pick up a newspaper or a book every once in a while – they’re full of crazy views. That’s the whole point of an editorial – to voice one’s opinion. Johnny was clearly not happy with this teacher’s methods, and that’s great that you are! However, that does not mean we should or should not post this in our printed version.
BAZINGA!
Tyler, I would love to justify your opinion with a rebuttal of my own, but sadly, there’s no real argument in anything you just said. So I will instead try to clear some things up for you.
First off, racism does apply here. A more specific term would be islamophobia, but Molly doesn’t need big words like that filling up the paper. Normally racism refers to discrimination toward a particular race only, disregarding other factors such as religion or creed. But when one overgeneralizes an entire culture regardless of the true religions of that population, racism is an acceptable term.
I apologize if liberal views offend you; I understand, as a diehard conservative, that it is probably difficult to assimilate such views into your pre-existing mindset. However, I am not sure what ground you stand on to say that this fellow student’s views are “liberalized” and with incorrect facts. I merely recounted this student’s experiences (which, as I was not the one present, is as factual as you are going to get, sorry) and gave MY opinion regarding them. So I guess if anything, I’m the liberal. Although I’m still not sure how that matters…
Furthermore, how can you encourage the professor’s political incorrectness? Yes, it provides a “new perspective”- a very bigoted and inaccurate one, unfortunately. Don’t get me wrong, I love exposee, and voicing opinions that differ from the norm, and all that stuff that can sometimes be politically incorrect. But there is so large a difference in that, and pure bigotry, that this professor’s actions are far over that line.
And I will reiterate what Molly said by restating that although I highly appreciate your comment about my writing being “tainted news,” this article is no news at all, but rather than a simple opinion. It saddens me that you are an advocate for the oppression of freedom of speech, though. I hope you will come to see one day that there is a great difference in tainted news and opinions (that you merely disagree with). If you have a different view that you would like to share with the FHSU community, I highly encourage you to submit your writing to the Leader; like I said, these pieces are opinion pieces and are a popular portion of our newspaper.
And finally, I would suggest one final edit to your last line of your comment. Since we’re dipping our toes into the realm of religious diversity and acceptance, it seems very unaccepting to say “In God WE trust…” As this article goes to prove, not everyone will share the same beliefs as you, and we must, as Americans, be accepting of this. In the future, it would be correct to quip along the lines of, “In God I Trust, and I believe.”
Again, thank you for your feedback, and I would love to hear from you.
Although I disagree with the teachers approach based on your description of how it took place, The Koran does teach that the goal of Muslim religion is to dominate the world, i.e., to force their religion on us or destroy us if we don’t agree.
I also understand that all people of any religion don’t necessarily understand what their religion teaches. Unfortunately like many Christians.
So again, although I may not agree with how that professor presented the information it was true. Therefore, he was teaching the subject matter correctly.
Also, referring this to racism would be incorrect. Racism is against a race of people not a religion. All Muslims are not of a specific race of people.
Gregory, did you even read the article? You write, “The information…was true. Therefore, he was teaching the subject matter correctly.”
The author writes, “He started off after the video by telling his students to disregard the video’s statistics: The majority of Muslims are radical extremists, and Muslims are raised to hate America. The class laughed along with him as he ridiculed the Muslim beliefs and practices, saying it was ridiculous they still worshiped the moon as their god – which, by the way, is completely untrue.” <—what part of that is "true"?
Thanks for trying.
I hope that somebody takes this issue to the “higher-ups” at FHSU–and that the professor receives more than a slap on the wrist. This is an unacceptable action and a poor representation of the University.