Deleted
Joined: Mar 29, 2024 3:46:56 GMT -5
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2014 10:24:07 GMT -5
Hirsi Ali’s scheduled lecture next Monday on “Islam and the West” for Yale’s William F. Buckley Jr. Program has ignited a firestorm.
It began with a meeting that Yale’s Muslim Students Association (MSA) solicited with the Buckley Program’s student leaders as soon as the event was announced, trying to convince them to cancel her visit. Yesterday morning, the MSA, along with 35 co-signing student organizations, including the Yale Women’s Center, the Slifka Center (Yale’s hub for Jewish life), the Black Student Alliance, and Yale Students for Israel, sent a campus-wide e-mail that argued that Hirsi Ali’s history of “hate speech” and provocative statements, which include advocating the “defeat” of Islam, ought to disqualify her from speaking at Yale. They felt “disrespected,” they said, by the very act of inviting her; evidently they found her ideas too dangerous and her words too caustic for the virgin ears of their fellow undergraduates. At the very top of the list: the Yale Women’s Center. Though I can’t exactly say that my Yale undergrad experience left me with a reverential view of the Women’s Center, I still gasped when I saw its name on that list.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is one of the world’s most tireless advocates against the physical abuse of women and the practice of female genital mutilation, and she focuses her research and activism on cultures in which these practices are all too common.
Considering the Women’s Center’s enthusiasm for women’s advocacy, its joining the protest against her visit is surprising, to say the least. More than that, its co-signing the MSA’s e-mail (which glibly dismisses Hirsi Ali’s childhood abuse as “unfortunate circumstances”) is positively astounding. The Women’s Center’s shared “concern” with MSA over Hirsi Ali’s visit shows in no uncertain terms what the Center’s priorities are: In a clash between liberal political orthodoxy and the most essential women’s rights — the rights to a secure, self-directed life and safety from physical abuse — politics wins.
www.nationalreview.com/article/387857/allah-and-ali-yale-john-masko www.nationalreview.com/article/387933/free-speech-yale-david-gelernter
|
|
Virgil Showlion
Distinguished Associate
Moderator
[b]leones potest resistere[/b]
Joined: Dec 20, 2010 15:19:33 GMT -5
Posts: 27,448
|
Post by Virgil Showlion on Sept 15, 2014 10:37:11 GMT -5
It will be interesting to see whether she ultimately gets to speak. If only she'd made her criticism more general, such as "A World Without Religion", and then focused on Islam during her talk, it seems to me she'd be welcomed to Yale with open arms.
|
|
mmhmm
Administrator
It's a great pity the right of free speech isn't based on the obligation to say something sensible.
Joined: Dec 25, 2010 18:13:34 GMT -5
Posts: 31,770
Today's Mood: Saddened by Events
Location: Memory Lane
Favorite Drink: Water
|
Post by mmhmm on Sept 15, 2014 10:37:12 GMT -5
Let them all howl. If they can't deal with being presented different views and ideas, the real world is going to be a terrible shock for them. Yale's president seems committed to allowing Ms. Ali to speak. I commend him.
|
|
mmhmm
Administrator
It's a great pity the right of free speech isn't based on the obligation to say something sensible.
Joined: Dec 25, 2010 18:13:34 GMT -5
Posts: 31,770
Today's Mood: Saddened by Events
Location: Memory Lane
Favorite Drink: Water
|
Post by mmhmm on Sept 15, 2014 10:38:34 GMT -5
It will be interesting to see whether she ultimately gets to speak. If only she'd made her criticism more general, such as "A World Without Religion", and then focused on Islam during her talk, it seems to me she'd be welcomed to Yale with open arms. She focuses on political Islam. According to Yale's president, she will speak.
|
|
Virgil Showlion
Distinguished Associate
Moderator
[b]leones potest resistere[/b]
Joined: Dec 20, 2010 15:19:33 GMT -5
Posts: 27,448
|
Post by Virgil Showlion on Sept 15, 2014 10:42:47 GMT -5
Let them all howl. If they can't deal with being presented different views and ideas, the real world is going to be a terrible shock for them. Yale's president seems committed to allowing Ms. Ali to speak. I commend him. Depending on where you live, "the real world" is more a reflection of the world they want to live in. For example, Canada has gagged and fined authors (Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant come to mind) who express critical views of Islam in particular. At the very least, Canada's "Human Rights Council" (an Orwellian name if ever there was one) can make life miserable for authors expressing such views. I have nothing against Islam, but we certainly ought to be able to criticize it without the criticism being labeled "hate speech".
|
|
Virgil Showlion
Distinguished Associate
Moderator
[b]leones potest resistere[/b]
Joined: Dec 20, 2010 15:19:33 GMT -5
Posts: 27,448
|
Post by Virgil Showlion on Sept 15, 2014 10:44:41 GMT -5
It will be interesting to see whether she ultimately gets to speak. If only she'd made her criticism more general, such as "A World Without Religion", and then focused on Islam during her talk, it seems to me she'd be welcomed to Yale with open arms. She focuses on political Islam. According to Yale's president, she will speak. Good. Let the masses squawk, as you say.
|
|
mmhmm
Administrator
It's a great pity the right of free speech isn't based on the obligation to say something sensible.
Joined: Dec 25, 2010 18:13:34 GMT -5
Posts: 31,770
Today's Mood: Saddened by Events
Location: Memory Lane
Favorite Drink: Water
|
Post by mmhmm on Sept 15, 2014 10:46:01 GMT -5
Let them all howl. If they can't deal with being presented different views and ideas, the real world is going to be a terrible shock for them. Yale's president seems committed to allowing Ms. Ali to speak. I commend him. Depending on where you live, "the real world" is more a reflection of the world they want to live in. For example, Canada has gagged and fined authors (Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant come to mind) who express critical views of Islam in particular. At the very least, Canada's "Human Rights Council" (an Orwellian name if ever there was one) can make life miserable for authors expressing such views. I have nothing against Islam, but we certainly ought to be able to criticize it without the criticism being labeled "hate speech". Of course we should be able to criticize if we wish to do so and have enough information to do so with a modicum of credibility. If one cannot listen to and learn from diverging opinions, one is not ready to enter society as a learned and informed member, IMO. I can't see a world full of identical thinkers as something to be valued, nor sought after. Universities are institutions of learning, so learn!
|
|
Virgil Showlion
Distinguished Associate
Moderator
[b]leones potest resistere[/b]
Joined: Dec 20, 2010 15:19:33 GMT -5
Posts: 27,448
|
Post by Virgil Showlion on Sept 15, 2014 10:49:04 GMT -5
Depending on where you live, "the real world" is more a reflection of the world they want to live in. For example, Canada has gagged and fined authors (Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant come to mind) who express critical views of Islam in particular. At the very least, Canada's "Human Rights Council" (an Orwellian name if ever there was one) can make life miserable for authors expressing such views. I have nothing against Islam, but we certainly ought to be able to criticize it without the criticism being labeled "hate speech". Of course we should be able to criticize if we wish to do so and have enough information to do so with a modicum of credibility. If one cannot listen to and learn from diverging opinions, one is not ready to enter society as a learned and informed member, IMO. I can't see a world full of identical thinkers as something to be valued, nor sought after. Universities are institutions of learning, so learn! Tell that to the CHRC.
|
|
Deleted
Joined: Mar 29, 2024 3:46:56 GMT -5
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2014 10:50:28 GMT -5
The Yale Women' s Center should be really proud of themselves.
|
|
mmhmm
Administrator
It's a great pity the right of free speech isn't based on the obligation to say something sensible.
Joined: Dec 25, 2010 18:13:34 GMT -5
Posts: 31,770
Today's Mood: Saddened by Events
Location: Memory Lane
Favorite Drink: Water
|
Post by mmhmm on Sept 15, 2014 10:53:09 GMT -5
Of course we should be able to criticize if we wish to do so and have enough information to do so with a modicum of credibility. If one cannot listen to and learn from diverging opinions, one is not ready to enter society as a learned and informed member, IMO. I can't see a world full of identical thinkers as something to be valued, nor sought after. Universities are institutions of learning, so learn! Tell that to the CHRC. LOL! I doubt they'd pay much attention to an old American gal. I agree it's a shame people sometimes appear to want to remain ignorant rather than make the effort to take in information, research and digest what they've learned, measure the results, and continue until they're able to form a cognizant stance on whatever issue they're wrestling with. It's a lot easier, I suppose, to just accept your pre-existing biases and shut down any incoming. Sad, that.
|
|