Brandeis University rescinds honorary degree to Ayaan Hirsi Ali for being critical of Islam

Unfortunate. She's a brave woman. It seems like Brandeis University is not as courageous as her.

 

probably one of the only religious somehow above criticism or we threaten you with violence

absolutely disgusting

 

Islam is a religion of peace and if you don't agree we will threaten you.

 

cowards.

 

Yes, she is.

Maajid Nawaz is a very brave person as well. His explanation of what the current incarnation of Muslim-based terrorism is about as precise and exacting as anything I've thus read or heard about the phenomenon.

Islam is still tethered deeply to society conformity. Many of the Arab nations have compiled a form of Islamic interpretation onto the statism of a country (like a Frankenstein of Islam/Fascism) to create a kind of pseudo-Islam that is highly charged and steeped in national identity.

Many older Muslims don't adhere to this ideology, I've heard. It is largely a phenomenon taken up by the younger people, as the statist nature of the religion/nation hybrid of Islam (Nawaz refers to it as "Islamism") is what is commonly presented to the disaffected.

Nawaz' explanation of this is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EqSuNewrQs.

I found it fascinating, and furthering my own belief that Islam has to find a way to co-exist parallel to a society (separation of church and state), if in this modern age, it will survive.

More people like these, from within the culture and religion of Islam, must become more vocal and prominent to the rest of the world. They also have to be supported and embraced by the rest of the world, too.

 

I do genuinely feel sorry for Ali in a way which I don't for say, Pamela Geller. But just like a Jew who survived Auschwitz would still be wrong for advocating the destruction of all Germans, so the same goes for Ali, who has called Islam a "death cult."

 

Please tell me how criticism of a ideology is the same as wanting the destruction of a race. Strawmaning Ali's position won't do you any good. The difference between Pam Geller and Aayan Ali is that Ali's criticism is constructive. She actually cares for those oppressed under Islamic regimes. She has acknowledged countless times that the passive law abiding Muslim outnumbers the oppressors and terrorists. She believes Islam needs reformation not a counter holy war that bombs Muslim nations like Ms. Geller wants.

 

I think honorary degrees are stupid in general. I am also not a fan of ayaan.

 

Colleges can rescind real degrees, not surprised they can rescind fake ones as well.

 

Shameful. Ayaan is a very courageous individual, maintaining her public profile in the face of cultist threats.

 

Good.

 

Shameful as it was for Brandeis to bow down, it is laughable to compare this incident to Ahmadinejad speaking at Columbia.

Also, it should be mentioned that Brandeis withdrew their offer of an honorary degree to Ali, not rescind one that had already been awarded.

 

Irshad Manji is a knowledgeable person who's actually trying to bring change and I give kudos to her efforts. Ayaan on the other hand is a fraud. She's out to make a dollar from her story and this new movement of hate. The lady has little to no knowledge of Islam itself, not that she has to have any knowledge. But just curious how she calls herself an expert on the religion. She scratches the itch of the Muslim extremist, that's all she's good at.

 

Exactly.

It's shameful. She is a brave woman and she is right about everything she says.

 

I hate it when people are penalized for things they say or for what they believe in, but it seems that this is being overblown. While Ayaan is within her rights to call a religion a "Death Cult," the University is within its rights to rescind an offer for an honorary degree.

I've seen her on T.V many times and my first impression was in praise of the noble narrative, but I soon got the impression that most of it was making a name for herself. It is true that women need a voice, especially those in Islam, but by taking the extreme view points she takes, she's not building any sort of dialogue--her arguments for the very women she is trying to help follow the pattern of denying them acceptance into her women's rights advocacy unless they denounce their religion. She paints Islam and women's rights issues as being mutually exclusive. "The only good muslim is a non-muslim" --will not help her get far. I do like the reformation point she brings up from time to time but she needs to make up her mind about which point she is trying to push. If she doesn't take such a hardline stance however, I have a hard time seeing how she would make herself so relevant. She is ideologically motivated at her core but maneuvers around like a politician. A classic immigrant success story, she switched party lines to become a mouth piece for the anti-immigrant VVD party in the Netherlands.

That being said, I always respect people that go against the grain even when they receive death threats. I do think that a lot of what she says is for personal gain and her message is too extreme and flawed, but that doesn't change the fact that she lives in fear of her life everyday.

 

What she does is amazing, but if she really wants to make people listen she shouldn't use some of the inflammatory rhetoric that is just taking away from the message she is trying to deliver. Saying "Islam is the new fascism" isn't going to help her get people to focus on how women are treated - it's only go to piss one group of people off and have align her with those like the Fox News types.

While it's a shame that such rhetoric can be used to cover-up all that she has done, people in her type of position as a leader for woman's right need to really do need to take accountability for the language they use and the power it has to influence, inflame, and be used against her.

 

I see it's impossible for someone to speak the truth and say that Islam with the Quran, hadith, and history of the prophet inherently promotes misogyny without being called hateful.

 

This will likely destroy her CV.

 

David Silverman (President of American Atheists and Brandeis alum) writes open letter to Brandeis: