Brandeis University Shows Weakness Protecting Speech

[From article]
In late December, following the unprovoked murder of two New York City police officers, Brandeis student Khadijah Lynch tweeted on Facebook: “I have no sympathy for the nypd officers who were murdered today.” Repeating herself the following day, she added: “I hate this racist fucking country.” Lynch had already made a dismal name for herself months earlier when she was quoted in the student newspaper (ironically named The Justice): “American police forces of today descend from a legacy of slave captives and overseers whose job was to protect the property (enslaved black bodies) of rich, slave owning capitalists.” To be sure, the slain police officers were Latin and Asian.
Lynch, of course, is entitled to freedom of speech. So, too, are her critics. Prominent among them was Daniel Mael, a courageous Brandeis senior and journalist for TruthRevolt.com, who had vigorously protested the president’s cave-in over the withdrawn degree offer to Hirsi Ali. He quoted Lynch’s words in an article he published later that day. Mael was pilloried by students who rallied to Lynch’s defense, one of whom preposterously claimed that his news site is largely followed by “white supremacist(s).”
No Brandeis faculty member or student leader publicly defended Mael. Instead, he was excoriated for violating Lynch’s “privacy,” although it was she who had chosen to go public with her Facebook rant. Lynch absurdly accused Mael of “slander” for publicizing her public posting.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/01/the_brandeis_university_debacle.html

January 4, 2015
The Brandeis University Debacle
By Jerold S. Auerbach

Brandeis University Student Threatened For Reporting Anti Police Hatred By Other Student

[From article]
Daniel Mael, a student at Brandeis University and a reporter for Truth Revolt, is receiving threats after reporting on hateful tweets by a student leader.
He reported on tweets from Khadijah Lynch, a student leader at the university, who said she had "no sympathy" for two recently murdered NYPD officers.
[. . .]
Lynch, who previously served as Undergraduate Department Representative for the African and Afro-American Studies Department at Brandeis, began to receive criticism after Mael’s reporting.
Two days later, after Lynch’s tweets went viral, leftist Brandeis students attacked Mael, accusing him of racism. A member of the Student Conduct Board emailed the university’s president and senior administrators, accusing Mael of “stalking” and “targeting” Lynch, and demanded the university hold Mael “accountable.”
Mael even received death threats.
A Change.org petition began and accused Mael’s report of being libelous and cyber-bullying the cop-hating Lynch

http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=6169&app=cro

Student gets death threats for publicizing liberal tweets
Caleb Bonham , Editor-in-chief
@CalebBonham
Dec 29, 2014 at 4:52 PM EDT

Ayaan Hirsi's Response to Brandeis University Cowardice; What You Can Do

Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941) "Those who won our independence believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty."

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. Capitulating to a campaign by CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) and voluble student and faculty protests, Brandeis President Frederick Lawrence yesterday withdrew the honor. He has publicly shamed a courageous woman. CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorism funding case involving Hamas.
Please read the eloquent and noble response of Ayaan Hirsi Ali below, and then please reach out to the Brandeis administration and express your outrage at this shameful action.

President Fred Lawrence - lawrence@brandeis.edu 781-736-3001

Brandeis University
415 South Street
Waltham, MA 02453
Phone (781) 736-2000

Celia D. Harris
Executive Assistant to the President
cdharris@brandeis.edu

James Walsh   
Executive Director of Financial Operations
mlwalsh@brandeis.edu

Chris O'Brien   
Vice President for Financial Affairs and University Treasurer
obrien@brandeis.edu

Merrill Swig
Department Administrator
mswig@brandeis.edu

Elisa Gassel
Assistant Director, Office of Special Events
elisa@brandeis.edu

Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s statement:

“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.”

Censorship at Brandeis University

Censorship at Brandeis University

Dear President Reinharz,

The decision to reprimand the editors of the Gravity was misguided. I know
the First Amendment does not apply to Brandeis, but that is no reason
to promote less free expression on a university campus. This is a national
problem of citizens supporting censorship. What ever happened to rational
speech? Silencing expression increases the number of misinformed people.
The principle used to justify censorship at Brandeis, is not applied
equally
to all groups. Negative speech is only an issue if the targeted group is wealthy
and/or powerful. I see this regularly as I try to raise awareness of the issue
of demonizing persons with disabilities. Criticizing certain ethnic, religious,
racial and gender groups is prohibited. But it is still acceptable for public
humiliation of persons with disabilities.
The action at Brandeis is no different from elected officials catering to
wealthy and powerful interest groups. That abomination has spread to the campus
which is unfortunate at best.

Roy Bercaw, Editor ENOUGH ROOM
Cambridge MA USA