Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the outspoken (this is almost a euphemism) Somali-Dutch opponent of Islam, was recently offered an honorary degree by Brandeis University. The school, which apparently only recently became acquainted with some of her comments about the Islamic faith, decided to revoke the offer of the honorary degree and instead invite her to campus for a dialogue. Hirsi Ali, not surprisingly given the brouhaha, has declined the latter invitation. A predictable debate has ensued about freedom of speech, campus politics, and double standards.

But the real question is why so many people are coming to the defense of a person who has voiced views as misguided as Hirsi Ali's. (Various conservative—and even moderate—outlets have expressed dismay and anger at the decision.) It's hard to avoid the conclusion that there is a double standard at work—and that making nasty comments about Islam is somehow more acceptable than making them about other faiths.

The question that arises—or at least a question that arises—concerns the content of Hirsi Ali's more controversial statements. I have spent a good chunk of the day scouring for quotes of hers, and the more extreme ones tend to fit a similar pattern. Here is one that is making its way around the internet:

In 2007, she told Reason Magazine that Islam should be “defeated” and when asked to clarify whether she meant “radical” or “militant” Islam, she made herself very clear. “No. Islam, period. 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.”

In another quote, she called Islam, "a destructive, nihilistic cult of death." Ali Gharib, at The Forward, has listed a whole lot of things Hirsi Ali has said, ranging from comments on Norwegian murderer Anders Breivik to the need to wage some sort of war against Islam.

I met Hirsi Ali several times, and I read her first book, which detailed her harrowing personal story. She always struck me as thoughtful and interesting and exceedingly polite, which is why many of the comments she has made in the last several years came as such a shock. (“There is no moderate Islam." And: "There are Muslims who are passive, who don’t all follow the rules of Islam, but there’s really only one Islam, defined as submission to the will of God. There’s nothing moderate about it.”) Statements like these are not only harmful to any sort of helpful debate; they are also incredibly thoughtless and, well, dumb.