Two articles on the Brandeis account and Ayan Hirshi Ali’s response below

http://www.weeklystandard.com/author/william-kristol A Note to Supporters of Brandeis By: William Kristol April 9, 2014 As Lori Lowenthal Marcus notes, 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.” Unfortunately, that's business as usual in the modern academy, including at an academic institution founded out of a special concern for the well-being of Jews in America and elsewhere. But when it comes to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a courageous woman who has fought for human rights around the world—and who may actually like the state Israel—well, that's a bridge too far. In recent weeks, Brandeis president Fred Lawrence came under "pressure"—i.e., received complaints from some students and whining from some faculty—and promptly caved. He has disinvited Ayaan Hirsi Ali from receiving an honorary doctorate this year. His justification for caving was pathetic. Lawrence announced that "we cannot overlook certain of her past statements that are inconsistent with Brandeis University’s core values. For all concerned, we regret that we were not aware of these statements earlier." Needless to say, he doesn't specify any of these statements. And he doesn't explain how Ayaan Hirsi Ali's life and thought—but not Tony Kushner's or Desmond Tutu's—has been in any way "inconsistent with Brandeis University's core values." But when you're in craven capitulation mode, you don't really have time to explain. And of course there isn't a good explanation. The fact is that the founders of Brandeis would have been admirers of and proud of Ayaan Hirsi Ali. And current friends and supporters of Brandeis can demand an explanation. Indeed, until they get a satisfactory one, they shouldn't support an institution that's displayed such pathetic cowardice and moral bankruptcy. In fact, I'd say to anyone who supports Brandeis: If you continue with business as usual with Brandeis, aren't you then complicit in Brandeis's betrayal of the cause of true liberalism and proud Judaism? If you say nothing, if you do nothing, then aren't you an enabler of this surrender to the enemies of academic freedom and Jewish honor? The cowardice of a university president isn't a surprise. The question is: Will less cowardly friends, associates and supporters of Brandeis meekly acquiesce in this shameful decision? The Shame of Brandeis John Podhoretz | @jpodhoretz 04.09.2014 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. Given that it only takes a Google search to find out everything one would need to know about her, including the controversial aspects of her views, it is disgustingly laughable for Brandeis President Fred Lawrence to claim he had to withdraw the degree because of information he had only lately discovered. Ayaan Hirsi Ali said this afternoon that she was not surprised she came under attack from demagogic apologists like the Council on American Islamic Relations: She has come to expect such things. 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 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. http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/04/ayaan-hirsi-ali-responds-to-brandeis-universitys-hyprocrisy/#disqus_thread Ayaan Hirsi Ali Responds to Brandeis University’s Shameful Hyprocrisy Posted by Jim Hoft on Wednesday, April 9, 2014, Human Rights Icon Ayaan Hirsi Ali fled the Netherlands after years of threats from Muslim extremists. Hirsi Ali dared to speak out against radical Islam and the horrific treatment of women in the Muslim world. In 2006 Ayaan Hirsi Ali came to America. Ayaan Hirsi Ali Ayaan Hirsi Ali by Malene Lauritsen On Tuesday Brandeis University disinvited the human rights icon from Commencement. Ayaan Hirsi Ali was banned by the Jewish university for speaking the truth about Islam. Today Ayaan Hirsi Ali responded to Brandeis University. The Weekly Standard reported: “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.”