A U.S. District Judge has ruled that an art history teacher who showed paintings of the Prophet Mohammed in class can proceed with a lawsuit claiming that Hamline University discriminated against her on the basis of religion.
However, other claims brought by Erika López Prater of emotional distress, retaliation and defamation were dismissed in the order by U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez in St. Paul.
An attorney representing Hamline, Mark Berhow of Hinshaw & Culbertson, released a statement Monday night in response to the decision:
“We are encouraged that the Court dismissed Plaintiff’s claims for reprisal, defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and retaliation in response to our motion and, as the case progresses, look forward to demonstrating that the sole remaining claim is also without merit.”
Attorneys for López Prater could not be reached Monday night.
Reverent paintings, student offended
After being hired to teach a class on world art, López Prater showed two paintings of the Prophet Muhammed during an October 2022 class over Zoom. According to the complaint, before showing the images, López Prater warned the students she would do so.
In the judge’s ruling, it was stated that it was “undisputed that both paintings were made with great reverence” for the Prophet.
After class, however, a Muslim student stayed on the video call after the other students left and “expressed outrage” about the paintings being shown and said she was offended by them.
López Prater later emailed the student saying she was sorry that the images made the student uncomfortable.
After she heard about the situation, Marcela Kostihova, the dean of Hamline’s college of arts, told López Prater “it was not a good idea” that she’d showed the images. Kostihova said there had been “a significant outcry within the Muslim Student Association as well as by Muslim faculty and staff and that Muslim staff were threatening to resign.”
She recommended López Prater apologize in class.
During another conversation with the dean, López Prater expressed concern that the situation may have damaged her career and “explained that excluding Muslim paintings of the Prophet Muhammad would be discriminatory because it would privilege the religious views of Muslims who object to viewing depictions of the Prophet Muhammad over those of Muslims who do not object.”
Contract not renewed
During class on Oct. 11, López Prater apologized to her students and asked if anyone wanted to speak about it further. Nobody did. She said she’d be open to having a conversation about it outside of class.
On Oct. 24, López Prater was told that a class she’d been scheduled to teach during the spring semester was being canceled and that her contract would not be renewed.
On Nov. 7, Associate Vice President of Inclusive Excellence David Everett sent an email to employees and students speaking about the showing of the paintings.
“Certain actions taken in that class were undeniably inconsiderate, disrespectful, and Islamophobic,” he wrote. “While the intent behind those actions may not have been to cause harm, it came at the expense of Hamline’s Muslim community members. While much work has been done to address the issue in question since it occurred, the act itself was unacceptable.”
The outrage against López Prater snowballed with a staff editorial in its student newspaper decrying her actions and further included allegedly defamatory statements made about her on campus by the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic relations.
The university subsequently was criticized for violating Lopez Prater’s academic freedom, and this spring Hamline President Fayneese Miller announced that she would retire next year.