Brandeis University announced yesterday it would withdraw its offer to present Islamophobe Ayaan Hirsi Ali with an honorary degree, triggering an uproar among anti-Muslim and far-Right activists.
Brandeis decided to rescind the award after students and other groups signed a petition highlighting Ali’s bigoted attitude toward Muslims and Islam. The university released a statement that said they “cannot overlook certain of her past statements that are inconsistent with Brandeis University’s core values.” Ali has previously called Islam a “destructive, nihilistic cult of death” and has advocated changing the Constitution to eliminate Muslim rights.
On cue, Ali’s colleagues were quick to decry the decision via their respective websites and social media accounts.
Robert Spencer equated this to the same tactics as the “Nazi Brownshirts” who “used to go to college campuses and heckle and intimidate anti-Nazi professors.” He later wrote on his blog, “Is it unacceptable at Brandeis, a contradiction of its core values, to oppose the global jihad? Apparently so.”
Truth Revolt’s Ben Shapiro calmly responded on his Twitter by saying the only reason Ali was denied was “because RELIGION OF PEACE SO SHUT UP!”
Anti-Muslim cartoonist Bosch Fawstin took a different tack on Twitter: “the ONLY reason [Brandeis] Renegaded on Honoring Ayaan Hirsi Ali is because They Found Out She Was Black.”
In his criticism of Brandeis, writer and publisher Michael Shermer went as far as saying Ali is “the Martin Luther King, Jr. of this generation of civil rights activists and champions.”
Ali herself later responded, “They simply wanted me to be silenced.”