The kid signed up for a class called “Islamaphobia.” He shouldn’t exactly be surprised that he’s expected to write about Islamaphobia.
If he disagrees with the Prof’s positions, then that is what he should write. That’s how I got a couple of my best grades. My Profs loved it ‘cause it showed I was paying attention...unlike most of the folks in the class.
Just do two things....first make sure that you can restate the Prof’s point of view in a respectful way, this shows that you understand his position. Then, make sure you can make a well reasoned argument for an alternative point of view.
If he does this, I suspect he will get a good grade.
This is Berkeley, not some podunk community college.
There’s a difference between delivering a paper nobody out of a TA will read and posting on a extremely public forum. If the kid wants to criticize Islam on a paper the worst that can happen is a bad grade, if he doesn’t agree with the official line. If he makes similar criticism on twitter, he could get in a bad position.
If that happens, he’ll get all the knowledge on “islamophobia” he’ll ever need.