CAIR upset at non-muslim teaching class on Islam results with class dropped at Lane Community College

EUGENE, Ore. -- On Thursday, KEZI aired a story about a class just added to Lane Community College's schedule called "What is islam?" A Muslim civil rights group received word about it, and now it's calling for the professor to be replaced.

After a failed attempt to bomb Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square last week, Islamic religion came into the national spotlight again. LCC added an educational course on Islam, but it hired a professor whom some say is anti-Muslim. 

"What I do is I speak on what I see as the truth," said Barry Sommer, who wants to teach a class on Islam. 

That's a truth Barry Sommer says is based on more than two decades of research on Islam and the Middle East. He's taken an active political stance against radical Islam with a group called Act! 4 America.

"He is the president of an Oregon chapter of an anti-Muslim hate group -- perhaps one of the vicious anti-Muslim hate groups in America called "Act for America," said Ibrahim Hooper, Council on American-Islamic Relations.  The Council on Islamic Relations is a Muslim civil rights group in Washington, D.C.  Its leaders heard Sommer was set to teach an academic course called "What is Islam?" at LCC during the winter session.

They immediately called for Sommer to be replaced.

"When you have any class at a university, you expect the person teaching that class to have an objective viewpoint to offer accurate and balanced information about the subject matter," Hooper said.

 Sommer says he planned for his class to cover the good, bad and everything in between.  But he admits, it's difficult to be objective.  "Your personal views will invariably color what you talk about but that in no way diminishes the scholarly aspect of what you talk about.  It in no way takes away from the true factual, historical information you're presenting." Sommer said. 

The course quickly disappeared from the LCC's web site and a representative from the school said the class was canceled Friday afternoon. LCC wouldn't make a comment on how Sommer was assigned to teach the class.