Isn’t it wonderful that the Hollywood hipsters and other assorted loons have discovered their latest cause du jour in the kidnapped schoolgirls of Nigeria? Like a broken clock that’s correct twice a day, sometimes they do manage to be on the right side of an issue. But their lack of consistency in selecting which issue to rally around is stunning.
Just last month, Brandeis University was about to bestow an honorary degree on Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born American author and outspoken advocate for the rights of Muslim women. Her politics would typically appeal to the Left; as Fox News describes them ~
Hirsi Ali’s story is a heroic one, and her persona – Third World woman of color, secular humanist, ardent feminist, defender of gay rights and a near martyr to her liberal Western principles – certainly resonated with the awards committee of a proudly progressive university like Brandeis. She was almost the perfect candidate for an honorary degree…
But for one little thing: the Muslim factor. Hirsi Ali is vocal about Islam’s second-class treatment of women. And when the head of CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations), Nihad Awad, got wind of the school’s intention he began accusing her ~
… of wrong thoughts and evil words. Giving her an award, he wrote, would be like “promoting the work of white supremacists and anti-Semites.”
So or course Brandeis, lost in the ever-growing murkiness of moral relativity, backed down like the cowards they are ~
President Lawrence informed Hirsi Ali that she was no longer welcome at commencement. He blamed this on “certain of her past statements,” which he said were inconsistent with the university’s “core values.” He had the audacity to invite Hirsi Ali to visit the school someday for a discussion “in the spirit of free expression that has defined Brandeis University through its history.” 😯
Less than a month later, Ali’s assertions about Islam’s misogynist tendencies proved tragically accurate yet again, when the Boko Haram barbarians in Nigeria kidnapped 276 schoolgirls, and subsequently slaughtered hundreds of other people (mostly Christians).
Leftists in Hollywood and beyond are correctly outraged. But why weren’t they standing up to Brandeis and CAIR last month?
When you can’t reason for yourself – outside the Progressive echo chamber – you’re no longer effectively able to differentiate between right and wrong. (Remember, “judging,” the worst sin among Lefties, so it seems they’ve devolved the ability for discernment.)
Hirsi Ali has no such trouble. There’s no inconsistency in her words or actions. Here’s an excerpt from her article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal ~
Far from being an aberration among Islamist terror groups, as some observers suggest, Boko Haram in its goals and methods is in fact all too representative.
The kidnapping of the schoolgirls throws into bold relief a central part of what the jihadists are about: the oppression of women. Boko Haram sincerely believes that girls are better off enslaved than educated. The terrorists’ mission is no different from that of the Taliban assassin who shot and nearly killed 15-year-old Pakistani Malala Yousafzai—as she rode a school bus home in 2012—because she advocated girls’ education. As I know from experience, nothing is more anathema to the jihadists than equal and educated women.
How to explain this phenomenon to baffled Westerners, who these days seem more eager to smear the critics of jihadism as “Islamophobes” than to stand up for women’s most basic rights? Where are the Muslim college-student organizations denouncing Boko Haram? Where is the outrage during Friday prayers? These girls’ lives deserve more than a Twitter hashtag protest.- […]
It is also time for Western liberals to wake up. If they choose to regard Boko Haram as an aberration, they do so at their peril. The kidnapping of these schoolgirls is not an isolated tragedy; their fate reflects a new wave of jihadism that extends far beyond Nigeria and poses a mortal threat to the rights of women and girls. If my pointing this out offends some people more than the odious acts of Boko Haram, then so be it.
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Related:
Megyn Kelly Rips CAIR Official, defends Ayaan Hirsi Ali over Honor Violence (Video)
Islam’s Role in Boko Haram’s Kidnapping of Schoolgirls — on The Glazov Gang ~ Interview with Dr. Mark Durie, a theologian, human rights activist and pastor of an Anglican church. There’s nothing surprising about a terrorist branch like Boko Haram emerging from the tree of Islam; their views are entirely in keeping with the Muslim faith.
Boko Haram’s Reign of Terror: Al Qaeda Affiliate Slaughtering Christians in Nigeria
