Yale University Academics Protest Women's Rights Speaker

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

[From article]
Raised Muslim, but now an opponent of organized religion, Hirsi Ali is a tireless advocate for the rights of women and girls in the Muslim world. For years, she has fought against the practices of female genital mutilation, forced marriage, child marriage, and honor killings — all of which occur routinely in the Middle East and parts of Africa. Hirsi Ali has harsh words for those who commit such acts in the name of Islam and for those who deny women and girls the right to education and personal autonomy on cultural grounds.
You would think that advocacy on behalf of basic human freedoms would be uncontroversial. But in this brave new world where “Islamophobia” is a sin greater than actual violence, you would be wrong. After all, who are we to judge the cultural practices of others?
[. . .]



the Yale Muslim Student Association, which demanded (without success) that the Buckley Program rescind the invitation (a la Brandeis) or, at the very least, that it provide a counter-speaker to refute Hirsi Ali’s points.
Why? Because her presence at Yale threatened to make “Muslims on campus feel unwelcome and uncomfortable.”



(Apparently, it is now the responsibility of universities to protect students from ideas that may offend or put them ill-at-ease.)

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/opinion/op_ed/2014/09/braceras_yale_hit_for_hosting_rights_activist

Braceras: Yale hit for hosting rights activist
Muslims, lefties target ‘hate’ instead of violence
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
By: Jennifer C. Braceras
Boston Herald

* * *

[From article]

This student, the Muslim Students Association, and a little over thirty other organizations signed an open letter — with its fair share of cherry-picked quotes and mischaracterizations — that was sent yesterday in a school-wide email. But these students fail to understand the purpose of the university and the meaning and necessity of free speech within it.

http://spectator.org/articles/60427/we-invited-ayaan-hirsi-ali-yale—and-outrage-ensued

WE INVITED AYAAN HIRSI ALI TO YALE—AND OUTRAGE ENSUED
Critics fail to understand university free speech.
By Rich Lizardo

9.16.14