Remarks of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an ex-Muslim, at Yale

Ayaan Hirsi Ali has often been rejected by the “multicultural” establishment, perhaps most memorably in April of this year by Brandeis University.

According to Brandeis,

“She is a compelling public figure and advocate for women’s rights, and we respect and appreciate her work to protect and defend the rights of women and girls throughout the world,” said the university’s statement. “That said, we cannot overlook certain of her past statements that are inconsistent with Brandeis University’s core values.” [Emphasis added.]

According to the Fox News article linked above,

Ali, a member of the Dutch Parliament from 2003 to 2006, has been quoted as making comments critical of Islam. That includes a 2007 interview with Reason Magazine in which she said of the religion, “Once it’s defeated, it can mutate into something peaceful. It’s very difficult to even talk about peace now. They’re not interested in peace. I think that we are at war with Islam. And there’s no middle ground in wars.” [Emphasis added.]

Ali was raised in a strict Muslim family, but after surviving a civil war, genital mutilation, beatings and an arranged marriage, she renounced the faith in her 30s. [Emphasis added.]

Her “past statements” referenced by the Brandeis presumably include her opposition to Islam and her desire that speech be free and unfettered, which it is not in Islam. What might Brandeis’ core values be? Do they coincide with Obama’s Eid message of July 27th?

While Eid marks the completion of Ramadan, it also celebrates the common values that unite us in our humanity and reinforces the obligations that people of all faiths have to each other, especially those impacted by poverty, conflict, and disease.[Emphasis added.]

In the United States, Eid also reminds us of the many achievements and contributions of Muslim Americans to building the very fabric of our nation and strengthening the core of our democracy.  That is why we stand with people of all faiths, here at home and around the world, to protect and advance their rights to prosper, and we welcome their commitment to giving back to their communities. [Emphasis added.]

Do Brandeis’ core values also include Obama’s notions that we are at peace, not war, with Islam and that the Islamic State, its cohorts and successors, are non-Islamic? They, and He, should know better.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born on November 13, 1969 and

is a Somali-born American (formerly Dutch) activist, writer and politician. She is known for her views critical of female genital mutilation and Islam, and supportive of women’s rights and atheism. She collaborated on a short movie with Theo van Gogh, entitled Submission (2004). Critical of Islam, it provoked controversy, and death threats were made against each of the two. Van Gogh was assassinated later that year by a Dutch Muslim. [Emphasis added.]

. . . .

In 2005, Hirsi Ali was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.^[2] She has also received several awards, including a free speech award from the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten,^[3] the Swedish Liberal Party‘s Democracy Prize,^[4] and the Moral Courage Award for commitment to conflict resolution, ethics, and world citizenship.^[5] Hirsi Ali has published two autobiographies: in 2006^[6] and 2010.

Hirsi Ali emigrated to the United States, where she was a fellow of the American Enterprise Institute.^[7] She founded the women’s rights organisation, the AHA Foundation.^[8] She became a naturalized US citizen in 2013 and that year was made a fellow at the Kennedy Government School at Harvard University, and a member of The Future of Diplomacy Project at the Belfer Center.^[9][10] She is married to British historian and public commentator Niall Ferguson.

Here is a You Tube video of Hirsi Ali’s entire September 15th remarks at Yale University. The video includes introductions and her remarks, followed by a question and answer segment. Her remarks, which begin at 10:08 into the video, focus on the clash of civilizations, Islam and the West. Listen to her questions to Muslims at the end of her remarks and to her responses to the questions from the students. It’s a long video, so please watch it when you have the time. Without missing much, you can skip the introductory remarks.

She seemed to be speaking less to the “choir” and more to a broader audience which she was trying to convince. To that end, she was as conciliatory as she could be without abandoning her thesis that Islam is the religion of repression, submission and death, not peace; that it is highly dangerous to Western civilization, including our concepts of freedom and democracy. “Radical” Islam is rising, becoming even worse and it must be defeated.

Even to try to defeat Islam, we need to defeat the increasing efforts to eliminate freedom of speech at home in favor of speech that is politically and multiculturally correct and therefore not free.