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Many people's reaction would be to squelch racist or prejudicial comments and this might be the right way to respond: simply by disallowing such remarks. If the student is being knowingly provocative, this can be the best course of action.
However, in many cases it is better to draw out the issue and deconstruct it rather than drive the issues underground where they can escape critique.
Case Study:
At university I had a friend of mine who I thought cared very little about the welfare of his Muslim ummah. He always came late with his red tracksuit bottoms, earrings, bumping to our class on international relations, and showed little interest in the subject. In his last year in university I saw him more in the prayer room which I thought was very positive. But he showed more and more distress with the 'Eurocentric approach' of the teachers, and one day in the seminar class he confronted the teacher aggressively. He said that everything we read is biased and Islamphobic. All the books are written by Jewish Zionists, he claimed. The teacher in my opinion handled the situation badly and ordered him to leave the seminar. She didn't engage with him in any meaningful way at all. After that seminar he dropped out of the class and I hardly saw him.
You may decide to speak with your student outside the class or in it; either way, certain features will help you to get a positive outcome.
Bear in mind the destructive role that emotion can play. Try to keep his mind engaged on thinking tasks, not on expressing hostile attitudes. You can lower his emotional level and start to open up his thinking at the same time by using Active Listening, Reflective Reframing, or a version of Moderator Technique. Although you might feel like challenging his ideas, bear in mind the more he feels threated or disrespected, the more entrenched his views are likely to become.
The more you can maintain an acceptable relationship with him and keep the lines of communication open, the more likely you will be able to support him through a difficult phase of his personal intellectual development.
At the same time, within the class you might want to set some boundaries or limits for acceptable debate. It is important to do this in a non-prejudicial way; you might want to talk this through with him privately.
Define what your limits are
Get clear in your own mind what your limits are – for example, you may want to have a thoughtful and wide-ranging discussion, but avoid conflict or controversy, Or you may want to stir up some controversy, but you surely have some limits or principles that you don't want violated – or negative consequences you want to avoid.
Identify your own boundaries using any of the following techniques:
- Fill in the blanks: 'I don't mind … but not …' — 'People can do what they like as long as …'
- Define the principles that you stand for. Some may be more important than others. For example, how much do you value: honesty? Accuracy? Freedom of speech? Diversity of opinion? Representativeness? Authentic Islam? Respect? Vigorous debate? Peaceful dialogue? Or anything else you can think of.
- Visualise scenes that you definitely wouldn't want to happen and then scenes you could live with. What are the differences between the two?
Then do some of the following as appropriate
- Make a list of 'principles' that you follow
- Make a list of 'boundaries' not to be crossed
- Invent some 'policies'. This is a good way of creating and protecting your boundaries. It sounds less personal and more powerful to say, 'I'm sorry, we have a policy…'