TCC students freak out when astronomy professor covers his face, rants about Islam
HURST
He says he sees a connection between the subject matter he teaches, astronomy, and his religion, Islam.
But announcing that connection in a darkened classroom with his face covered by a scarf Tuesday got one Tarrant County College adjunct professor suspended indefinitely, said Suzanne Groves, TCC's executive director of communications.
Several students attending Daniel Mashburn's astronomy lecture Tuesday were scared enough by his rant on the moon and the Muslim faith to call campus police. Officers responded on TCC's Northeast campus and questioned Mashburn, but did not arrest him Tuesday evening.
Groves said a TCC investigation into the matter is ongoing, and that Mashburn has been suspended pending the results of that investigation. She said the spring semester was Mashburn's second term teaching at TCC. "The class has been taken over by another instructor," Groves said. "And it is meeting at its regularly scheduled time this [Thursday] evening."
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Fox 4’s Brandon Todd: Are you aware that you scared some of those students?
Mashburn: Why should they be afraid?
Todd: Well you wouldn’t show your face.
Mashburn: Many people do not show their faces. And in many countries, they do not show their faces.
Todd: Well here in America, we tend to usually show our face when we are a professor at a college. That’s typically the standard.
Mashburn: Oh, yes. But I do not answer to your standard. I am not a Christian. I am not a Jew. I’m a Muslim.
Todd: When you interviewed with Tarrant County College to get this job, did you explain to them your teaching philosophy?
Mashburn: I keep it secret. I keep it safe. I do my best, but I am tired of hiding in the shadows. I am tired of fearing their law. I fear Allah.
Todd: What do you have to say to those students who were frightened enough last night they had to call 911?
Mashburn: I do not know why they fear me. Why are they afraid? I’m a man who covers his face and his hand. I offer you nothing but the Quran a book and the universe. The universe is in my hand right here. You can look at it.
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