Activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali speaks out at Yale against Muslim ‘indoctrination’

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NEW HAVEN >> Ayaan Hirsi Ali, known worldwide for her crusade on behalf of women’s rights in Muslim regions, brought her message to Yale University Monday night and received a standing ovation at the end of her talk.

Her warm reception came despite a protest in the days before her visit by Yale’s Muslim Students Association. They criticized Yale’s William F. Buckley Jr. Program for inviting her to campus, saying she lacks the “credentials” to speak authoritatively on Islam.

The students association called on the Buckley Program leaders to have another voice on stage to counter Hirsi Ali’s views. The Buckley leaders declined to do this.

Approximately 200 people packed Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona Hall to hear Hirsi Ali speak. Campus police and bodyguards hovered around the auditorium and the building; Hirsi Ali occasionally has received death threats as she travels around America and other nations.

But when she was brought on stage, there was applause only and no boos nor signs of dissent. Nevertheless, when Yale professor of Slavic languages Harvey Goldblatt introduced her, he counseled the crowd to “engage in an open conversation” and listen to diverse views “with civility.”

“This university is supposed to be a place for free exchange of ideas,” he noted, “no matter how controversial.”

Goldblatt noted the “dramatic narrative” of Hirsi Ali’s life. She was born in Somalia, the daughter of a politician. She was a victim of genital mutilation, a common practice in many countries. But she fled a marriage arranged by her father and immigrated to the Netherlands, where she became a member of the Dutch parliament.

She is now a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

Hirsi Ali began by thanking the Buckley group “for standing up for academic freedom” by inviting her to speak.

She noted she was “disinvited” by Brandeis University officials last April and had her honorary degree rescinded after professors and students raised concerns about her previous statements on Muslim practices. For instance, in 2007 she told a London newspaper reporter that Islam is “a destructive, nihlistic cult of death.”

Hirsi Ali told the Yale audience that what happened to her at Brandeis illustrated the Islam practice of “resisting criticism.”

Those who do so, like her, are branded “infidels” and “heretics,” she said.

Alluding to the stance against her by Yale’s Muslim Students Association, Hirsi Ali said they had sought to “silence” her because of “what they call my lack of credentials. That is a fallacy.”

“My question to the Muslim students at Yale is: why do you try to silence a dissident?” Hirsi Ali asked.

And then she asked, in the wake of beheadings of other “dissidents” and suppression of women, “Why are Muslims silent? Where is the Muslim outrage?”

She added, “For Muslim women, their place is at home. They are to sacrifice everything, practice strict obedience to their fathers, grandfathers and husbands.” She said it comes down to complete control and “indoctrination.”

Hirsi Ali concluded her speech by asking: “Will you submit — or will you finally stand up to Allah?”

During the question-and-answer session, Hirsi Ali was asked if violence against women is worse in Muslim regions than elsewhere. She replied it’s a worldwide problem. “But if it happens in the U.S., at least you can count on your relatives and the state. For Muslim women (in those regions), if you complain about it, it’s your fault. They’re subjected not just to more violence but to a system that keeps things the way they are.”

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