Posted on 04/15/2014 12:09:13 PM PDT by Impala64ssa
Yesterday Brandeis University decided to withdraw an honorary degree they were to confer upon me next month during their Commencement exercises. I wish to dissociate myself from the university’s statement, which implies that I was in any way consulted about this decision. On the contrary, I was completely shocked when President Frederick Lawrence called me—just a few hours before issuing a public statement—to say that such a decision had been made.
When Brandeis approached me with the offer of an honorary degree, I accepted partly because of the institution’s distinguished history; it was founded in 1948, in the wake of World War II and the Holocaust, as a co-educational, nonsectarian university at a time when many American universities still imposed rigid admission quotas on Jewish students. I assumed that Brandeis intended to honor me for my work as a defender of the rights of women against abuses that are often religious in origin. For over a decade, I have spoken out against such practices as female genital mutilation, so-called “honor killings,” and applications of Sharia Law that justify such forms of domestic abuse as wife beating or child beating. Part of my work has been to question the role of Islam in legitimizing such abhorrent practices. So I was not surprised when my usual critics, notably the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), protested against my being honored in this way.
What did surprise me was the behavior of Brandeis. Having spent many months planning for me to speak to its students at Commencement, the university yesterday announced that it could not “overlook certain of my past statements,” which it had not previously been aware of. Yet my critics have long specialized in selective quotation – lines from interviews taken out of context – designed to misrepresent me and my work. It is scarcely credible that Brandeis did not know this when they initially offered me the degree.
What was initially intended as an honor has now devolved into a moment of shaming. Yet the slur on my reputation is not the worst aspect of this episode. More deplorable is that an institution set up on the basis of religious freedom should today so deeply betray its own founding principles. The “spirit of free expression” referred to in the Brandeis statement has been stifled here, as my critics have achieved their objective of preventing me from addressing the graduating Class of 2014. Neither Brandeis nor my critics knew or even inquired as to what I might say. They simply wanted me to be silenced. I regret that very much.
Not content with a public disavowal, Brandeis has invited me “to join us on campus in the future to engage in a dialogue about these important issues.” Sadly, in words and deeds, the university has already spoken its piece. I have no wish to “engage” in such one-sided dialogue. I can only wish the Class of 2014 the best of luck—and hope that they will go forth to be better advocates for free expression and free thought than their alma mater.
I take this opportunity to thank all those who have supported me and my work on behalf of oppressed woman and girls everywhere
You are a courageous person, and deserve praise. To show support, I bought one of your books the other day.
Don’t let the jihadofascists win!
Nothing matters here.
Nothing Hirsi Ali says matters.
None of the actions taken by the university matters.
The issues that this concerns don’t matter.
The only thing that matters is that Political Correctness™ was adhered to.
Political Correctness™ must be observed in all situations no matter what... even if it means that a decision can mean life or death, PC must come first. If that means death, then so be it. PC must win.
The muzzies know that pussified American liberals feel this way. That is what they are counting on to win.
The Race Hustlers know this too. They are counting on it to win also.
Brandeis had NO problem giving an honorary degree to a Jew Hater..of course libs LOVE Jew Haters, but giving an award to a woman who has been through hell because of radical Islam, liberal logic tells them she doesn’t deserve the degree because she dares to speak out about the TRUTH of Islam
If Ali was a former Christian and prominent critic of that faith I have no doubt she would have gotten her honorary doctorate.
What the leftists have declared is Islam is above criticism.
Also CAIR likely threatened to stop the flow of Arab money.
Michael Graham: Brandeis Embraced Bill Ayers, Has Bred Terrorists
By Tom Blumer | April 14, 2014
In one of a pair of Sunday posts at his web site, New England talk show host Michael Graham added an emphatic exclamation point to Brent Bozell’s and Tim Graham’s Saturday column condemning the cowardice and hypocrisy of Brandeis University’s decision to revoke its commencement invitation to Ayaan Hirsi Ali. In the other, Graham roasted the Boston Globe for backing Brandeis.
Bozell and Tim Graham rightly pointed to the university’s embrace of particularly nasty anti-Catholic and anti-Israel speakers. Michael Graham found yet another example adding toxic icing to an already rancid cake, and noted that three of its female graduates have achieved a unique level of infamy (links are in each original; bolds are mine throughout):
Brandeis Says “No” To Feminist, “Yes” To….TERRORIST?
... It is impossible to parody American liberalism, because every example you would invent to mock them is in fact something they have already done.
When Brandeis University decided to kow-tow to religious extremists and withdraw their honorary degree/opportunity to speak from Ayaan Hirsi Ali, I made an off-hand comment on the air about how these same liberals would have no problem inviting unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers to speak on campus.
D’oh! From 2009:
Former radical William Ayers will finally get a chance tonight to be heard on a Massachusetts college campus. ...
... For those of you keeping score at home, this is Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers. “I only regret I didn’t do more” bombing Bill Ayers. The Designed-A-Nail-Bomb-Like-The-One-The-Boston-Marathon-Bombers-Used Bill Ayers. The guy whose nail bomb would have killed new Army recruits at Ft Dix, except his idiot Weather Underground pals blew themselves up instead–that Bill Ayers.
I’m in the “once you decide to blow people up, you lose your seat at the conversation table” camp. The students of Brandeis who brought Bill Ayers to campus are not ...
The same students who–no joke–couldn’t say for sure they would oppose HITLER speaking at Brandeis (yikes!) are now happy to ban a feminist currently living under a death threat imposed by religious extremists. But for Brandeis, this story is just getting good.
Because Brandeis’ relationship with terrorism isn’t just theoretical:
“… around 1970 ... Brandeis saw three of its women students posted to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List (Angela Davis, Susan Saxe and Katherine Power), no small feat since only seven women were ever put on that FBI list in all of its history.”
... Katherine Ann Power ... started at the Brandeis University SDS chapter, then migrated to Weather Underground terror and murder. She killed a local Waltham cop, then went into hiding until 1993. Now she’s a popular campus speaker, acclaimed by liberals.
But heroic feminist Ayaan Hirsi Ali is untouchable.
Separately, Graham skewered the Boston Globe for supporting Brandeis’s commencement decision:
The Boston Globe-Democrat Joins Racist/Sexist Attacks On Black Feminist By Brandeis
In a surprise to absolutely no one who’s paying attention, the “courageous” truth-to-power editors of the Boston Globe-Democrat agree with the decision of Brandeis University to stop feminist Ayaan Hirsi Ali from speaking at their commencement and stripping her of an honorary degree:
SOMALIA-BORN feminist author Ayaan Hirsi Ali has every right to criticize Islam, the faith into which she was born. But this right should not be confused with an entitlement to receive an honorary degree. Brandeis University, a nonsectarian Jewish-sponsored college, recently rescinded its invitation to honor her after understandable complaints by Muslim students who were offended by her blanket condemnation of their faith.
Hirsi Ali is justified in feeling whipsawed by the university, which should have looked into her more extreme statements before now. But it made the right call in the end.
You may recall these are the same brave Boston Globies who reported on the violence inspired by the Dutch “Mohammed cartoons,” but refused to let their readers actually see the cartoons because they were terrified of Muslim pressure. The Globe-Democrat went so far as to compare supporters of a free press printing news to “Nazis.” No joke.
It’s funny, but when I googled looking for a similar editorial from the Boston Globe-Democrat denouncing Brandeis for their honorary degree to Tony Kushner (He calls the creation of Israel a “mistake” and says pro-Israel Jews are the most “repulsive”)–I got nothing.
And I’m trying to imagine what a Globe-Democrat editorial celebrating a Catholic university for dis-inviting a pro-gay-marriage speaker would sound like? What would the lede be to their editorial praising an Evangelical college for defending its principles by disinviting a pro-same-sex-marriage commencement speaker?
It’s almost as if the Boston Gl0be-Democrat has NO principles, that they just find a way to promote their partisan, far-Left views–with a little self-protective kow-towing to potentially-violent Muslims thrown in for good measure.
On Saturday, Bozell and Tim Graham wrote:
Now let’s wait for famous Brandeis faculty, past and present, to speak out. What say you, Robert Reich? And how about you, Anita Hill? A black woman has been silenced.
We’re still waiting.
the rest of history
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