Thread by @AudreyTruschke

I applaud this principled, pro-knowledge stance.

A few stray thoughts.... #Hindu #Muslim #blasphemy #censorship

https://twitter.com/Hindus4HR/status/1611098550393241600

#Hamline University recently egregiously infringed on #AcademicFreedom by firing a professor for showing devotional historical Muslim images that some conservative modern Muslims find offensive.

On fact value, the firing is outrageous.

Academic Freedom trumps religious sentiments, always. If it didn't, we couldn't teach the humanities.

But consider the other implications here...

Hamline's argument is that conservative religious sentiments ought to require academic censorship of history.

How would that work out for Indian history? There are conservatives Hindus who find everything Islamic in India's past offensive. Seriously, everything.

Those applauding censorship of an image that offends their modern Muslim religious sentiments sound rather similar to Hindu Right folks who advocate for academic censorship. The reasoning is the same. And it is very dangerous.

So, what are you to do when your religious sentiments are offended?

My advice (which I have given in the classroom) -- Bracket the offense long enough to analyze, historicize, and understand. You can still be deeply offended, and you certainly never need to approve or endorse.

But we gain so much--in terms of historical understanding, human empathy, religious literacy, and widening our knowledge--from the ability to analyze that which offends us.

Don't reject that. Don't censor history. And don't give others the tools to suppress what you hold dear.

Enough for now. Forgive typos please.