Somali-born author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, is well-known as a tireless campaigner for women's rights around the world. But she is also known for her unrelenting criticism of Islam. She has referred to it in the past as a "cult of death" and said that the West was "at war with Islam" and that "violence is inherent in Islam" and that "Islam is the new fascism". But these unvarnished views have cost her an honorary degree from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, just outside Boston. The university was founded in 1948 with a Jewish tradition and currently has 3600 undergrad students. When Hirsi Ali's name was announced a week ago along with five others, including the current editor of the New York Times, Jill Abramson, the protests started almost immediately. Bloggers first noticed that Hirsi Ali was going to receive the degree and commented negatively on it. Within a few days, a Muslim student at Brandeis started an online petition to ask the university to change its mind. Thousands of other students, and people from off the campus, signed the petition. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also wrote the university president, Frederick Lawrence, and asked him to change his mind. Finally, on Tuesday, the campus newspaper, The Justice, wrote an editorial, "Disinvite Hirsi Ali from Commencement." "We understand that the Board of Trustees as well as Lawrence would initially find Hirsi Ali a compelling candidate to receive an honorary degree," the editorial said. "One aspect of her story, in which she escaped an arranged marriage in Somalia and later worked to protect women's rights, corresponds with the social justice mission of our University. Yet, her derogatory comments toward Islam warrant a closer look at the administration's choice to award her a degree. "In her 2010 memoir Nomad: From Islam to America, Hirsi Ali states that Islam is 'not compatible with the modern Westernised way of living,' that 'violence is an integral part [of Islam],' and that 'Muhammad's example is terrible, don't follow it.' These comments ignore the fact that there are multiple views of Islam, insist that violence is inherent in Islam and that one culture is fundamentally better than another. " On Wednesday, April 9th, the university issued a statement announcing it had withdrawn the offer of a degree, saying it was not aware of the statements she had made about Islam before offering her the degree, and that "certain of her past statements are inconsistent with Brandeis University's core values". Lawrence said he had spoken with Hirsi Ali and that she was invited to come to the university "in the future to engage in a dialogue". "You would think that someone at Brandeis would have learned to use Google," Rashid Khalidi, a professor of Arab studies at Columbia University told the New York Times, in response to the Brandeis statement that it didn't know about Hirsi Ali's anti-Islam views. When Hirsi Ali responded to the Brandeis statement on Wednesday, however, it was with the same fiery determination that she has tackled other critics of her work and words in the past. She said that Brandeis' offer "initially intended as an honor has now devolved into a moment of shaming". She also denied that she had been 'consulted" about the decision. "I wish to dissociate myself from the university's statement, which implies that I was in any way consulted about this decision," she said in her statement and added that she was shocked when Lawrence told her of the university's decision. "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'," she added. "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." The Brandeis decision will no doubt once again reignite the rancorous debate over Islam between its supporters in the U.S. and its critics. Lori Lowenthal Marcus, the U.S. correspondent for The Jewish Press, wrote that the students at Brandeis had issued a "fatwa" against Hirsi Ali. "...Ali's decades of devotion to helping women enslaved by misogynistic practitioners of the Muslim faith – who dominate the governments of Muslim countries – was neutered by the pronunciamento by students that they 'would not tolerate an attack on [their] faith'," Marcus wrote. "And in still other words, on American campuses criticism of religion – which has been a fixture of campus life – is no longer permitted. What words, what thoughts will be deemed unacceptable next?" But her critics were just as outspoken. Nihad Awad, CAIR's national executive director, said, "offering such an award to a promoter of religious prejudice such as Ali is equivalent to promoting the work of white supremacists and anti-Semites".
