September 2014
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.
I think I’ll just quote part of her statement, via The Weekly Standard:
“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.
“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.”
Update: I can’t quote all the good commentary
out there, but I will quote John Podhoretz,
The Shame of Brandeis:
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2014/04/09/the-shame-of-brandeis/
If you have not yet heard, Brandeis University has rescinded its offer of an
honorary degree to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born activist whose work has
focused on the barbaric misogyny rampant in Islamic societies like the one in
which she was raised—and whose efforts to call attention to them as a legislator
in the Netherlands led to a political crisis there and her eventual flight to
the United States….
What [Brandeis
President Fred]
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.
Legalinsurrection, April 9, 2014.
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