Ayaan Hirsi Ali and the Shame of Brandeis University

The story: Brandeis U. decides against honor for Islam critic   "After taking heat from some of its own over a decision to grant an honorary degree to an advocate for Muslim women who has made comments critical of Islam, Brandeis University withdrew the planned honor Tuesday night.

"The university said in a statement that Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali would no longer receive the honor at the May 18 commencement." ...

The fallout:
WILLIAM KRISTOL:  Ayaan Hirsi Ali Speaks   ... “ '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." ...

Again from William Kristol: A Note to Supporters of Brandeis  ... "Brandeis University has in recent years bestowed an honorary degree on Tony Kushner, who called the creation of Israel as a Jewish state “a mistake” and who attacked Israel for ethnic cleansing and for causing “terrible peril in the world.” Brandeis has also honored Desmond Tutu, who compared Israel to Hitler, attacked the “Jewish lobby” as too “powerful” and “scary,” and complained of the “Jewish monopoly of the Holocaust.' ”

Brandeis University Rescinds Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Honorary Degree Because She Criticized Islam   ... "She and Theo Van Gogh produced a short film critical of Islam’s treatment of women, called Submission. A Muslim murdered Van Gogh on an Amsterdam street in 2004. His killer used a knife to pin a note to Van Gogh’s body, and in that note he threatened Ali."

Legal Insurrection: The silence of Western feminists is still deafening  
"I’ve been thinking about what to say regarding the decision of Brandeis University to withdraw an invitation to Ayaan Hirsi Ali for an Honorary Degree.
It comes on the heels of attempts to keep The Honor Diaries off campus, The silence of Western feminists is deafening."

John Podhoretz: The Shame of Brandeis 
... "What Lawrence has done here is the nothing less than the act of a gutless, spineless, simpering coward.

"My late uncle, Marver Bernstein, served as the university’s president from 1972 to 1983. I know Marver would have been appalled beyond belief at his shameful successor’s monstrous capitulation to the screaming voices of unreason. As should we all be."