Episode 13: Disrespectful Criticism of Islam will not be Tolerated
Two of the examples given for why Dr. Widdowson was fired concerned social media comments that she had made. These social media comments often concerned Widdowson’s (satirical or otherwise) criticism of Islam.
One Tweet that resulted in a “[complaint] and [concern] regarding [Widdowson’s] conduct” was a Tweet satirizing intersectional feminism’s support for the hijab/niqab. This will be discussed further below.
Widdowson’s difficulties criticizing Islam began in December 2017, when she put forward a written question to General Faculties Council asking whether it was appropriate for Mount Royal University to “muzzle critical statements or opinions that vehemently oppose the chosen beliefs of certain members of our community”. The question was in response to the fact that a student had been suspended for writing the statements “Fuck Islam”, “Islam is Cancer” and “Love Muslims, Hate Islam”.
These difficulties continued when, on March 21, 2019, Armin Navabi, an ex-Muslim atheist activist, was scheduled to give a talk at Mount Royal University entited “The Case Against Islamic Reform”. On March 19, 2019 Navabi was contacted by MRU’s “Interfaith Coordinator” and told that the event had been cancelled.
The Navabi talk was cancelled so that it would not occur when a vigil was being held for the victims of a mosque shooting in New Zealand. A poster for the vigil, printed by MRU’s Centre for Equity and Meaningful Inclusion, featured the following quote from the Quran: “Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return”.
This led Frances Widdowson to ask Provost Lesley Brown if MRU was “now an Islamic university”?
This post incensed Shifrah Gadamsetti, the former President of the Students’ Association, who asked Widdowson “how terrible a person do you have to be to capitalize on the sorrow of a grieving community for your own, tired agenda?”
On March 22, 2019, the President of the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship sent President Docherty a letter criticizing MRU for cancelling the talk.
On March 23, 2019, President David Docherty expressed regret for cancelling the talk.
On March 27, 2019, a group of faculty members sent a letter to Provost Lesley Brown congratulating her on expressing regret for cancelling the Navabi talk.
On April 17, 2019, the President of the Mount Royal Faculty Association wrote a letter to President Docherty criticizing him for saying that a cancellation of the talk violated academic freedom. This was linked to pressure from certain faculty members who agreed with the decision to cancel the talk.
On April 18, 2019, 30 faculty members sent a secret letter to administration entitled “Academic Freedom at MRU – a letter from concerned faculty”. This letter was received through Freedom of Information, and was almost completely redacted.
On May 24, 2019 Frances Widdowson sent an email to Provost Lesley Brown asking her to release the letter. Brown refused to release the letter on the grounds that this would be unethical.
On August 16, 2019, Widdowson then asked for a review by the Privacy Commissioner of Alberta, and a hearing is supposed to take place in 2022. This is extremely important because 30 faculty members also wrote a secret letter to denounce the contract faculty member Mark Hecht (see Episode 14). It is highly likely that many of the people who signed this letter also were involved in pushing Hecht out of MRU.
On August 29, 2020, Widdowson again received a hostile reaction in her criticism of “Islamicism” when she retweeted a Titania McGrath Tweet. Titania McGrath’s Tweet said that she would be “doing another SlutWalk to raise awareness about Islamophobia”. Frances Widdowson’s satirical character Frances McGrath retweeted this with some satirical commentary.
This caused massive opposition from a number of professors and students at MRU. One student implied that Widdowson should not be still employed at MRU because she was “tweeting a picture of a woman in a bikini holding up a sign that says ‘sluts for Islam’ and had criticized the candle light vigil that was held for the victims of the Christ church shooting”.
This led a number of professors to support the student, one even arguing that her actions were “brave and just”, and it was “good” that she was “using [her] voice”.
