A professor at Manipal Institute of Technology, India, who compared his Muslim student to Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, one of the terrorists who killed 166 in an attack in 2008, has been suspended.
The incident broke out when the professor heard the student’s name and responded “Oh, you’re like Kasab,”. The student replied, “26/11 was not funny. Being a Muslim in this country and facing all this every day is not funny, sir. You can’t joke about my religion, that too in such a derogatory manner. It’s not funny sir, it’s not,”.
Trying to calm the student, the professor facetiously said, “You’re just like my son.” but the student solemnly responded: “Will you talk like that to your son? Will you call him a terrorist? How can you call me like that in front of so many people? This is a class, you’re a professional, and you’re teaching. You can’t call me that,”.
After the incident, the student stated in a students’ online group chat he had spoken to the professor and that he was really sorry about his expression. Asking the students to see the comparison that the professor uttered as a mistake, the student said to his friends “I understand what was happening in his head behind this and would like to believe he didn’t mean it. It came across wrong from a teacher, a person we admire, but it can be ignored this time. He also thanked his classmates for standing out for him during the quarrel in the class.