Job Discussion Forums

[SandyM]

Have you heard the joke about the Zayed Uni. teacher in Dubai who showed her class the dreaded cartoons of Mohammed? Even worse, apparently her supervisor approved the idea before she did it!

Now they're both on the way to the airport.

Freedom of Speech?!

Haha!

I'm speechless, really...

[Miss TESOL]

From Gulf News:

http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/Society/10017498.html

Professor and supervisor sacked
By Reema Saffarini and Mohammad Shamseddine, Staff Reporters

Dubai/Abu Dhabi: A Zayed University professor, who provoked students by showing them the offensive cartoons of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), and a supervisor, who condoned her move, which she claimed was within the rights of "freedom of opinion and expression", have both been dismissed.

An official source at the university said Claudia Kiburz, a professor of English, distributed copies of the cartoons claiming that publishing the caricatures is within the rights of "freedom of opinion and expression".

The source said students refused to remain in class and were threatened by the professor they would be counted as absent if they leave. Students went to complain to the supervisor of the English Learning Centre. According to the source, the supervisor told the students that Kiburz was right.

A university investigation was carried out on Tuesday night and the dismissal orders were issued at 10pm from the office of Shaikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Ministry of Education.

Gulf News tried contacting Kiburz to be told she "will not talk to the press in this country". The supervisor refused to comment to Gulf News saying that he "will not talk about this issue at this stage".

Dr Hanif Hassan, Vice-President of Zayed University, told Gulf News: "We are with the freedom of expression but at the same time we have to maintain the standards and values of our community."




So much for a "tolerant", "moderate" society.


From the NYTimes:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/08/opinion/l08cartoon.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

To the Editor:

Re "Beirut Mob Burns Danish Mission Building Over Cartoons" (news article, Feb. 6):

As a Jew, I am especially sensitive to the kind of outrage religiously offensive caricatures can inspire, and I empathize with my Muslim cousins. As a liberal American, I am sensitive to the complex interplay between the press's freedom to publish these images and legitimate questions concerning the wisdom of doing so.

Yet at the same time, I am struck by the inescapable irony of witnessing chanting mobs responding to the insult of being stereotyped as violent by rioting and burning embassies and threatening to behead those who have offended them.

Daniel P. Baker
Trumbull, Conn., Feb. 6, 2006

[SandyM]

Actually, what made me speechless was the fact that any teacher in the UAE could be that dumb! I suppose it was a case of "How to offend your students in one easy move".

I assume that she was just off the plane (and back on it, by now), but ... the supervisor?! What a jerk!!

[Miss TESOL]

For sure.

Even worse than kicking back in your chair to show your students the soles of your feet, or asking them to "zip" their lips (zip/b referring to that member of the male anatomy). Heard of a teacher getting sacked for this at HCT some time ago. Don't know if it's just one of those tales floating around or not.

[scot47]

Maybe she wanted to be deported ?

[Atassi]

I assume that we all should know this. But since no one is saying it I'll be the one to do so.

Any Muslim also would be offended if the same cartoon were made of any of the prophets. As you probably know, it's forbidden by Islam to make illustrations of the prophets (in Judaism as well for that matter). Also, in some forms of Christianity for that matter.

The mobs were mainly angry that their prophet was drawn (and in a very offensive way). The same thing could very well happen in Ireland or Israel or anywhere else if the circumstances were right.

I previously made a comment about the situation that I regret, as I hadn't heard the whole story. I wish everyone hurt by the situation the best of luck.

Atassi

[veiledsentiments]

Obviously there would be no necessity to 'want to be deported.' But, there is being so stupid that you have no one to blame but yourself.

Here are two supposed professionals who have not bothered to learn the basic knowledge of the religion which surrounds them. While ZU is more 'liberal' than the culture that surrounds it... and discussion of the topic with the students would probably be accepted... (and I know teachers who have discussed it in a couple of Muslim countries with no problem) But, no discussion of 'freedom of the press' can possibly change the accepted stricture in Sunni Islam that ANY picture of the Prophet is HARAM. This would be like inviting your students over for dinner and feeding them pork and not telling them until after they ate it.

These students are all computer and internet savvy. If they wanted to check out the pictures, they have the access.

These two people deserved deportation in my opinion.

VS

[younggeorge]

I don't know who the Gulf News's source was, but even the ZU authorities dealing with the case are not accusing the supervisor of approving the plans in advance or of saying "Ms Kiburz was right". On the contrary, he reported the incident immediately he heard of it. The problem is that his name became associated with the incident much later in text messages.

Rather than illustrating his stupidity, the case is a reminder of how precarious employment here can be.

The 7 Days story is more accurate.

http://www.7days.ae/local-news/varsity-uproar.html

Specifically:-

Text messages spread the news of Kiburz�s act. "She accused Muslims of being narrow-minded and intolerant of others' opinions," they said. "Could you believe this to be happening the UAE?�

Mr Hirst�s name was also in the text messages, although it is further understood that he knew nothing about Kiburz�s plans to distribute the cartoons.

Also, of course, Ms Kiburz had said nothing of the kind - but truth is the first thing to disappear in such matters.

[scot47]

The level of stupidity is rather like an erstwhile colleague who found Ankara to be 'too Islamic'. So he got a job in Riyadh. Wow !

[Tomton]

I think it was all carefully planned and orchestrated by Claudia Kiburz who knew exactly what she was doing and how her students and the authorities would react. She will now be writing articles, for a substantial fee, in NYT and others saying how dreadfully restricted life in UAE is and that she was tortured and humiliated in detention whilst awaiting deportation. She will appear on TV talk shows and then join the lucrative lecture circuit and end up making a small fortune for herself.

[younggeorge]

Not funny. Tomtom obviously knows nothing of the teacher or the incident.

[Bindair Dundat]

[turtlepi1]

[veiledsentiments]

That statement about talking/not talking to the media caught my eye too. Let's hope that she wasn't just creating fodder for her novel.

It comes down to one detail as far as I'm concerned. If she took those pictures into the class, she hasn't even an ounce of common sense... even if we ignore intelligence. Her departure was predictable and justified.

If her supervisior was completely unaware until afterwards, then his part in the story is sad. But, over the years I have seen similar situations, and once the negative story is out and the authorities pick it up - the person is gone. Fact almost never trumps bad publicity in the Gulf - as younggeorge pointed out as to the precariousness of life as an expat teacher in so many parts of the world.

VS

[tefllifer]

Hi
Please let's not add fuel on the fire here - it's bad enough it happened, it's bad enough that students were upset and that people lost their jobs... It's easy from afar to make wrong assumptions about people based on news stories and rumours and so on.
The teacher in question is a totally decent person who has been in the Gulf for quite a few years and who is/was active in professional development circles. (Yes, I can hear you cackling and hurumphing...) A moment's lunacy and she lost her job, livelihood, probably years of accumulated bonus - doesn't have a chance of working in this region again - has to leave at a moment's notice and all that - and it looks like someone else also got caught in the crossfire which must also be on her conscience.
Who knows - maybe the students convinced her to do it - I don't know - but let it rest - she must really be torturing herself with it all.
It's horrible all round.
Things like this have happened to lots of people in this area - anyone who has worked here will know of incidents.
We just have to learn from this - think twice and more before we broach anything remotely political and pray we never have a wild moment ourselves.
I sincerely hope the sitaution worldwide will calm down soon and lessons be learnt from it.