Gunnar in Denmark e-mails that an American professor in Dubai was fired for displaying the Forbidden Cartoons to her students. Here’s the Islamist Khaleej Times article on the firing:

Shaikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Education and President of Zayed University, ordered yesterday the termination of services of a university English language professor.

The reason for the termination of Prof Claudia Keyboars was that she displayed the blasphemous cartoons before female students during a class lecture.

The professor claimed that revealing such issues comes within the framework of “freedom of opinion and expression.”

Shaikh Nahyan emphasised that there is freedom of opinion and expression in the UAE, as well as academic freedom enjoyed by all educational institutions, but what happened in Zayed University does not relate, in any sense, to any relevant concept of freedom.

He pointed out that what had happened was an individual act and that Zayed University and all other educational and academic institutions were functioning within the framework of total compliance with Islam.

“We can never accept any offences against Islam, or any of its teachings and noble values,” he said.

He stressed that all educational institutions in the UAE are proud of their Arab and Islamic values.

Danish coverage of the story here (sorry, no English translation yet.)

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Update: Translation in extended entry. Thanks to reader Alan M.

Headline
Mohammed Issue Costs American Professor Job in Dubai

Subhead
Professor fired from university in Dubai after sharing Mohammed cartoons

An American professor, Claudia Kiburz, has been fired from her
teaching postition at Sheikh Zayed University in Dubai because she
shared copies of Jyllands-Posten’s Mohammed cartoons with her
students so they could discuss the issue.

But that led to complaints and she was fired, said one of her
colleagues who declined to be identified for this story. Kiburz
taught English at the university, which is for female students.

According to local newspapers, it was sheik Nahayan bin Mubarak,
education minister of the United Arab Emirates, who fired Kiburz.

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