Cancellation of noncredit course on Islam remains controversial

Insider Higher Ed’s David Moltz has a report on the continuing controversy over the decision by Oregon’s Lane Community College to cancel a noncredit course on Islam. The course was to be taught by Barry Sommer, head of the local Eugene/Springfield chapter of Act! for America. The website for the national organization opens with this statement from its founder:

I founded ACT! for America because Islamic militants have declared war on America. I know what this means. For years, I witnessed first-hand how brutally jihadists treat non-Muslims.

We are in for the fight of our lives and we must ACT! – before it’s too late.

The reason Lane administrators gave for the cancellation was the recent terrorist attack in Portland and the firebombing of a mosque in Covallis. But on the same day as the cancellation, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called on the college to replace Sommer as the instructor. Much of the ongoing controversy, and the threatened law suit, revolve around whether the college bowed to outside pressure from CAIR and compromised academic freedom.

Community college drops non-credit Islam course because of instructor’s history

Lane Community College in Eugene, OR, has dropped a non-credit winter course entitled “What is Islam?” after learning about the previous activities of the proposed instructor, Barry Sommer of Eugene.  According to The Eugene Register-Guard,

Sommer has given talks at the Pacifica Forum, a discussion group forced off the University of Oregon campus following a series of presentations that critics said were anti-Semitic. He also leads the local chapter of ACT! for America, a nonprofit organization that describes itself as an issues advocacy group but that opponents describe as an Islamophobic hate group.

Sommer suggested that the decision raised free speech issues and indicated that he has retained the services of the American Center of Law & Justice, a nonprofit public interest law firm founded by evangelist Pat Robertson.

The course had attracted the attention of the Council on American-Islamic Relations [CAIR].

“Unless the goal of this course is to promote anti-Muslim bigotry, Lane Community College should replace Mr. Sommer with someone who will offer students a balanced and objective analysis of the subject matter,” Arsalan Bukhari, executive director of the Washington state chapter of CAIR, said in a letter to [Lane Community College President Mary] Spilde on Friday.

Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR’s communications director in Washington, D.C., said Monday that he applauds LCC’s decision to cancel Sommer’s class.

Sommer denied that he is Islamophobic, but said that he did have “concerns about how Islam is defined today by its leaders, and how some people respond to those leaders’ interpretations.”

[The Eugene Register-Guard via Inside Higher Ed]

Islam and alleged harassment and retaliation at Georgia State

Inside Higher Ed offers a detailed look at “an ongoing case at Georgia State University highlights the complex and difficult circumstances Muslim students can encounter in a post-9/11 world.”