Thursday, April 10, 2014

Somali Woman Who Fled Islam Disinvited From University Event

I recall when I first read Ayaan Hirsi Ali's story, and the thought of the account still makes me feel terrible. The trauma of being subjected to female genital mutilation (euphemistically referred to as "female circumcision" by its proponents) at the age of five understandably affected her greatly.

She is an outspoken opponent of Islam but is also an atheist. The latter choice, along with the fact that she is an ardent feminist, should be more than enough in the way of credentials to make her the darling of American Academia. 

The problem for her is the former. It was enough for a cabal of faculty of Brandeis University to mount a blacklisting campaign to have her disinvited (that term is fast becoming a common - one worthy of dispensing with the hyphen after "dis") from an commencement event  at the school.

I shudder when I imagine how many radical feminists joined forces with Leftist Muslim sympathizers to run Ms. Ali out of town on a rail. 

One should note the term "core values" as used in the quote from the school in which they explained why they chose to cancel her invitation. "Core Values" is the new litmus test for anyone who is allowed to participate or even - as we saw in the case of Mozilla's co-founder and CEO Brendan Eich, be allowed to keep his job. Core Values encompasses any cause that the left holds dear. If you oppose the maltreatment of girls and women that is common in Islam, do not support the desecration of marriage and the massive overreach of governmental authority that codifies marriages between members of the same gender, or take any position that runs contrary to what the Left cherishes, you are in opposition to the Core Values of a slew of organizations in the United States. Core Values is the new "Americanism" is our dystopian world.


".....Brandeis..University in Massachusetts has decided not to award an honorary degree to a woman who has made comments critical of Islam.

The decision follows complaints from students, faculty members and others about honoring Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali...............

In a 2007 interview with Reason Magazine, Ali was quoted saying that “we are at war with Islam” and urged that Muslims be “defeated.”

The university issued a statement Tuesday night saying it can’t overlook statements “that are inconsistent with Brandeis University’s core values.”
An online petition created Monday gathered thousands of signatures. And more than 85 of about 350 faculty members signed a letter asking for Ali’s retraction........."



http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/04/10/ayaan-hirsi-ali-victim-honor-killing-brandeis-style/
"Brandeis University committed an honor killing this week. The victim was a Somali woman named Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Honor killings are depressingly common in the Middle East: punishment for women guilty of being raped, losing their virginity outside of marriage, adultery, dressing provocatively or simply embarrassing a male relative. These murders – most of which go unreported and unprosecuted – are usually acid-in-the-face, blood-on-the-floor affairs meant not only to salvage the good name of the dishonored family but to intimidate other women (and gay men) into abiding by the prevailing code of behavior.

Ms. Hirsi Ali is an internationally famous crusader against the practice of honor killings and other acts of aggression visited upon Muslim women by their menfolk.
Hirsi Ali’s story is a heroic one, and her persona – Third World woman of color, secular humanist, ardent feminist, defender of gay rights and a near martyr to her liberal Western principles – certainly resonated with the awards committee of a proudly progressive university like Brandeis. She was almost the perfect candidate for an honorary degree.

She comes by her passion honestly. At the age of 5 she was subjected to ritual genital mutilation by her family. As a young woman she rebelled against a traditional forced marriage and fled to the Netherlands, where she received political asylum..........................

She enrolled at a local university, became an avowed atheist and, in 2003, just 11 years after her arrival in her new country, she was elected to the Dutch parliament...........

Hirsi Ali’s story is a heroic one, and her persona – Third World woman of color, secular humanist, ardent feminist, defender of gay rights and a near martyr to her liberal Western principles – certainly resonated with the awards committee of a proudly progressive university like Brandeis. She was almost the perfect candidate for an honorary degree.
But there was one small problem. She had dared to criticize Islam and Muslim behavior in the same way other religions and other human behaviors get criticized in an open society. In America you can’t get killed for this (yet), but you can be dealt with.

Enter Nihad Awad, the national head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. He launched a letter of protest at Brandeis president Fredrick Lawrence, accusing Hirsi Ali of wrong thoughts and evil words. Giving her an award, he wrote, would be like “promoting the work of white supremacists and anti-Semites.”

That was rich. Awad has publicly supported Hamas (which is anti-Semitic) and Hezbollah, the terrorist arm of the Teheran Holocaust deniers. Not only that: He actually accused Ali of threatening the entire Muslim world with violence. The demand to rescind the award was backed by almost a quarter of the Brandeis faculty.

Faced with this absurd and offensive inversion of reality, President Lawrence informed Hirsi Ali that she was no longer welcome at commencement. He blamed this on “certain of her past statements,” which he said were inconsistent with the university’s “core values.” He had the audacity to invite Hirsi Ali to visit the school someday for a discussion “in the spirit of free expression that has defined Brandeis University through its history.”.........

Ayaan Hirsi Ali deserves her degree for precisely the reason Nihad Awad doesn’t want her to have it – because she dares to speak her mind and say things that offend the sort of people CAIR represents........."

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