The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has taken up the case of a Minnesota college professor whose display of the controversial “Mohammed” cartoons in the hallway outside her office has been censored.
Prof. Karen Murdock posted the cartoons because of the international debate over them and because she “was concerned that most students at Century had not even seen the cartoons and would therefore be unable to evaluate them intelligently.” They were torn down repeatedly until her academic division head, David Lyons, removed them himself. FIRE intervened, but afterwards,
[b]elieving that discussion and the free exchange of ideas at Century were now secure, Murdock posted the cartoons again on February 25, this time behind a curtain. Three days later, censors struck again, tearing down the cartoons in midday, and Lyons asked that they not be reposted.
Here is the curtain behind which Murdock placed the cartoons:
“We are a college. We are supposed to be a forum for the free exchange of ideas,” Murdock said. “If we can’t talk about this controversy at a college, where are we supposed to talk about it?? She continued, ?We are supposed to be able not merely to deal with controversy but actually to welcome it!”
