At a time when some are labeling the United States Islamophobic, an ongoing case at Georgia State University highlights the complex and difficult circumstances Muslim students can encounter in a post-9/11 world.
The story of a Georgia State professor who asked a graduate student if she had “bombs” under her traditional Islamic headscarf generated plenty of media buzzin the summer of 2009, but hundreds of pages of previously unreported court documents tied to the incident provide a clearer picture of how the university and involved individuals responded to what the student described as multiple acts of harassment and discrimination.
Slma Shelbayah, a former visiting instructor and doctoral student at Georgia State, filed a federal lawsuit against the university and other parties nearly a year ago. In sworn depositions provided this summer, the professor at the heart of the case attempted to explain how a regrettable “running joke” about Shelbayah’s religious garb morphed into an international firestorm over intolerance and insensitivity.
[Editor’s Note: To read the full article, click here.]