She is called a ‘pundit behind the industry of fear’ that fuels anti-Muslim bigotry. Ayaan Hirsi Ali calls herself a feminist and activist, and she will be speaking at Stevenson University sponsored Speakers Series in Baltimore, MD.
Several concerned citizens called the local CAIR office and have reached out to presidents of their local masajid. Muslim leaders mobilized behind an interfaith letter to be sent to the President of Stevenson Univeristy, Dr Kevin J Manning. A Maryland-based coalition of 18 masajid and interfaith partners endorsed the letter calling on Stevenson University to ‘drop anti- Muslim Hirsi Ali as a speaker at an upcoming Baltimore Speakers Series event or to at least offer a balancing perspective to her Islamophobic rhetoric.’
A letter of acknowledgment was sent by Dr Manning to the coalition but no further action is planned.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an athiest who was raised in a Muslim household in Somalia. After fleeing a forced marriage to a cousin , she sought asylum in the Netherlands. She went from a maid to running for member of parliment, until the government found that she had misrepresented facts on her asylum papers. She came to the United States after the director of her short file ‘Submission’, Theo Van Gogh, was killed and a death threat for her was left on his body. In the United States she has aligned herself with hatemongers like Robert Spencer, to neo athiest such as Sam Harris, and has been supported by grassroots anti-Muslim organizations such as ACT for America and liberals such as Harvard Professor Steven Pinker and Michael Shermer, editor of the Scientific American.
She has called for the closing of Muslim schools in the West, and for war against Muslims worldwide and has urged the United States to strip American Muslims of their civil rights, wrote Homayra Ziad and Alison Jysia of the newly renamed Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in an oped in the Baltimore Sun.
This event has concerned educators, such as Maryland resident Maher Kharma Ph.D, Past President of Islamic Society of Annapolis. “Sad news that Stevenson is inviting her at a time when Islamophobia is on the rise,” commented Yaseen Shaikh, Resident Scholar, Islamic Society of Baltimore and Director of Al-Rahmah Seminary.
The following was the response recieved from the admin at the Speaker Series when concerns were expressed on Hirsi Ali’s inclusion in the series.
"I feel that you have the wrong impression of the views we anticipate that Ms. Hirsi Ali will present. Although I understand that there are many who would like to see her ideas squelched, I believe that an objective assessment of her point of view would find that she is not anti-Islam, but does raise a number of interesting observations about how Islam today fits side-by-side a Western society, and makes concrete suggestions to bring the two cultures into a more cohesive, less violent existence."
In 2014, her appearance at Yale University was protested by 30 campus groups. Many don’t consider Hirsi Ali's comments about Islam to be protected under free speech, calling it hate speech. Hirsi Ali, a former Muslim who was a victim of genital mutilation as a child, has called Islam a "nihilistic cult of death," and has said that it must be "defeated."
She is a Israeli sympathizer and staunching anti- boycott divestment and sanctions. The audience at the Speaker Series will hear gems like she dropped in her speech at Yale: “There's no BDS movement against them on campus. Why? Last year in Nigeria, 200 girls were kidnapped. They were sold into slavery. There was no BDS movement against Boko Haram.”
The lecture orginally scheduled for the end of Jan was postposned due to the extreme snowfall over the weekend. Meyerhoff Symphony Hall has rescheduled the event for Monday, February 29, 2016. Tickets for the Speaker Series are sold by subscription to the entire series and are not for indiviadual sale. Tickets to individual lectures are not for sale, with the highest ticket sold for $415. Leon Panetta, former head of the CIA, and Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s medical correspondent, are other speakers in the series. The Speakers Series is also popular because it is a wonderful way to learn more about a variety of subjects: history, international affairs, foreign and domestic politics, current events, etc.
The interfaith coalition’s letter states in part:
“Ms. Ali is by all means free to believe as she chooses. We uphold First Amendment rights for all - including those with inflammatory, misguided views. However, our concern is that granting her this unchallenged platform to peddle misinformation would legitimize such falsehoods, perpetuate intolerance toward and hatred of Muslims, and risk jeopardizing the safety of local Muslims - including students on your campus."
The coalition - which includes Interfaith Action for Human Rights, Progressive Maryland, Casa De Maryland, and a number of prominent mosques in the state - made its request as a result of community concerns and of an unprecedented rise in anti-Muslim sentiment and hate incidents nationwide in recent months.
Suggestions offered to Stevenson University include allowing an actual expert on Islam to attend the event to respond to any of Ali’s Islamophobic remarks or to schedule another speaker recommended by the Maryland Muslim community to speak at a later date to “dispel misunderstandings created by Ms. Ali’s appearance at the university.”
The Speakers series contact information:comments@baltimorespeakersseries.org
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