How to handle email from Islamphobic professor

[- Femme -]

Here is the dilemma.

 

A friend of mine is in her second to last semester of school. Her teacher is clearly islamophobic and she likes sharing her opinions with her students via email. My friend hasn't had this professor yet but she might have her next semester. This problem concerns her kenyan muslim classmate who is currently in this woman's class. This girl has been recieving emails (along with the rest of her class) calling all muslims terrorists etc. Here is an excerpt she sent me.

 

[deleted]

 

This email is 6 pages long full of hate and nasty accusations. The professor claims that she is forwarding her 'sons' opinions on the subject yet both girls think she's making the 'son' up and it's really her wriiting all this. Now, this is not the first email. This is actually the 4th one she sent to her class(es). The kenyan muslim girl has so far ignored the others for the sake of peace. She did not want to start up anything because she is so close to finishing school and she did not want to jeapordize her graduation. This lady is friends with alot of the professors in the program and the kenyan girl was afraid that she would take her revenge and bad mouth her to the other professors.

 

Now, this last email was the last straw. She is debating about whether to contact the dean or Muslim Student Association or the newspaper. She is at loss and doesnt know the most productive route to take.

 

What would you guys do in her position?

 

I told her to save all the emails and ignore it until the end of this year when she graduates. Then when she is safe send it to every person in the school & make a big a$$ fuss.

[hodman]

I would say talk to the dean

[Caano Geel]

She needs to speak to an academic she can trust in her department and raise her concerns and find out what the options are and inquire whether they can act on her behalf.

 

Speaking to this woman directly or approaching her superiors is likely to make her focus attention on your friend and probably not in a good way.

 

Btw the woman is covering her self. She is right that its iraqi muslims killing other muslims, but she is misrepresenting the full truth and propagating a discredited rightwing propaganda, this sadly is an opinion - wrt the qurans message (the second paragraph) she is being an islamaphobe. point out the old testament bible for brimstone hell fire and ask her for the if she see's any problems in that too.

 

anyhow she does not have the right to misrepresent the truth -even as a opinion - to her students. Speak to the rest of the faculty i cant imagine they are all as brain dead

[- Femme -]

The problem is that my friend and the kenyan muslim girl are the only two muslim girls there (wearing the hijaab anyway). The professor in sending this to the whole class is deliberately trying to create a divide between the muslim girls and the rest of the class. That is so evil.

[Caano Geel]

yes she is and its disgraceful not least given her position of privilege and authority.. But your friend needs anally on her side before she approaches this oaf, she aught to speak to some one in authority in private. If worst comes to worst, assuming your in the US, there must be student unions or student welfare groups, other muslim professors. Any civil liberties group would slam down on this woman's poison.

[ElPunto]

^I like directness. I don't agree with bypassing the prof and speaking to someone higher up. I say speak to the prof and tell her what you're saying is offensive,insensitive and mistaken. Please refrain from it. At that stage - if nothing happens - then you take it to a higher level. After all the proof of the offending statements is clearly there.

[Caano Geel]

i know what your saying. and under many other circumstances i would agree with you. but its not the poor girls job to have to deal with this. and i would be concerned that going out by herself she is making herself a target for this woman in other ways, i.e. in her work

 

.. anyhow a third person means that later if there is a case to formally answer. i.e. she doesnt stop, or takes it out on the girl, she has backup

[Khalaf]

"P.S. Please don't quote the excerpts I quoted above. I will have to delete them after a week just in case. I don't want them floating around the net for someone to find (better 2 be safe)."

 

^^^^looooooooool that was the funniest part.....no disrespect intended but u and ur friend should fear Allah more.....what can they do to u horta that u fear? If she worries about her career then it is only Allah that can provide, thus fear Allah Alone......

trust ppl respect u more when u stand up strong na mean.

 

What a fun professor! (this is a resident professor or visiting speaker?).......wish dat was my class! Good luck to ur saxibta.

[- Femme -]

^Just like you to find a way to Put Allah in everything. I didn't ask you for a sermon, if you can't offer help with the situation....then go and read ur qur'an and stop bothering pple. :rolleyes:

 

Thanks Caano Geel! Good suggestion.

[Khalaf]

^^ maxa haxnaqa ina adeer? Everyone has an opinion no? I gave u mine, not sermon but an opinion nooh marka relax. Mida kale i did offer "help", it seems your friend fears this professor.....shouldnt fear human beings but stay frim in your beliefs and defend it....

 

good day.

[sheherazade]

I don't know what the law is where you are but over here you don't have to belong to a particular group eg Muslims to complain of discrimination etc- there could be others who have been made uncomfortable by the emails.

 

Get the girl to gather a few others- surely not everyone will agree with the prof. Tell her to get advice, goodness it's out there, sorry my knowledge is UK-specific grrrr. She/they can remain anonymous; if her marks suffer somehow she can say she was victimised or she can wait as someone else suggested- the rules can change however; she may not have a say once she leaves so best to find out now what her options are. Get her to print each and every darn email she sent, preferably from the school email account if she has one.

 

Get the email/names of all others to whom these emails would have been sent. See if she can print it off somebody else's account too. Tell her to seek advice from the best she can get- somebody is bound to know an expert. I have found some bodies that are meant to be helpful miss out on crucial info. God bless Google.

 

I had to deal with an email when I was in a 2 week old job once. I sat on it for less than 24 hours. I was not going to be as seen as the id*ot that did nothing when so-called joke emails(about Muslim, women in particular) were being sent to the whole office by the boss himself.

 

The following day the boss had left for holiday so I couldn't talk with him. Grrr. I went to find the guy who owned the company and let rip for a while- politely. He looked nervous- he was Iranian- and said he had already told the guy not to send out emails like that again. I said I'd speak with him myself too when he returned.

 

When he did return, whilst everybody did the how-was-your-holiday routine with him I didn't so much as look his way. He finally came to see me, stood behind me for the longest time- I pretended not to know or not to care- and let him hang there for a while while I squinted at my screen and 'worked'. Finally he said something, a lot of how-are-yous, how-are-things going, how-are-you, how-are-u-settling-in. Blah fooqa blah. When I saw that he was very uncomfortable, I thought it was better to let him wonder rather than bring it up- what would she do, what will she do?? Mwahaha. What a kalb he was, he refused to give me untaken holiday in pay when I was leaving that job claiming I had no 'right'. I stayed up all night to swat on employment law after that and I have been a fountain of knowledge since.

 

I could go onnnnnnnnnnn.

 

Don't let her sit on her a*se with this; the fear will diminish when she's armed with info. Tell her to put some faith in God, get smart, get knowledge and kick butt. What a spineless biyach she is, claiming a son wrote it. She's waaay tooo st*pid or arrogant; neither is acceptable. Take her down.

[Didi Kong]

This woman is very unprofessional is she a seasonal prof? Your friend doesn't have to put up with this. She could approach the prof directly and tell her the material she is sending out is higly offensive, discrimanatory and not true. If she is apologetic, demand that she sends out e-mails that make up for the misinformation and discrimination and that highlight the truth about Muslims. If not get the School Student Associations involved and approach the Dean. The end result should be that this woman acknowledges what she did is wrong and makes reparations for it by sending out mass e-mails with the right information. After putting the prof through all that I don't think her marks will suffer. But if they do she can appeal to the school board for re-grading and take any other necessary action.

[Aisha]

I would tell her off so bad!!!!!! Reading those emails made my blood boil.

 

Your friend shouldn't think that if she speaks up that the prof will get her back! She should have no fear, toughen up and either go talk to someone superior to the prof or go talk to her directly!

 

If that was me, I would go to the prof directly and set her straight!!!! Then I would approach someone higher. I'd screw her over hard core.

 

Update us on what your friend decided to do! Khair inshallah.....

[Jacpher]

Is this a required political or related course? Usually, in academic environment, freedom of speech and self-expression is exercised and encouraged but if these are science courses, the professor may be going into areas she’s not supposed.

 

I think your friend should avoid this professor as much as possible. If your friend takes those nasty emails to the dean out of concern that she can’t trust someone that offends and hates Muslims as much as this professor does and may not get a deserving grade in the course, the dean would at least make other arrangements for your friend. I don’t know but the Kenyan student may even challenge the dean to drop the course and not appear in her transcript or get incomplete grade due to the professor’s behavior. She can hate Muslims as much as she wants but certainly she has no right to spread her hatred in the classroom or use the course as a platform to air her sons’ point of views.

 

Have your friend keep a record of those emails. She doesn’t have to get these nasty emails unless it’s a required course material. I don’t know if I would opt out of that mailgroup or keep a hard copy of every nasty email and somehow distribute them evenly to school newspapers and media outlets anonymously via mail. Your friends priority should be to avoid any problems to her academic life.

[Miriam1]

I would suggest for your freind to be very careful. If she can wait until her official marks come out and she is in the safe, I would say wait. At the end of the day she has all the proof that is required with the stated dates. Profs can be very vegenful, she might take it out on her in terms of marks. But once she is done she can go as far as she wants.