( CNN ) -- First , Brandeis University offered an honorary degree to Ayaan Hirsi Ali , an outspoken critic of Islam . Then apparently when officials actually familiarized themselves with her writing after several complaints , they took the offer back this week . One Fox News contributor calls it `` an honor killing , Brandeis-style . '' That 's crass , but the university 's behavior is certainly disappointing . It smacks of cowardice , and Hirsi Ali ca n't be blamed for seeing it as an attack on her personal dignity . An act that was meant to honor her has been turned into an opportunity to shame her -- and , as she pointed out , `` The slur on my reputation is not the worst aspect of this episode . More deplorable is that an institution set up on the basis of religious freedom should today so deeply betray its own founding principles . '' Indeed , the fear of creating offense is not compatible with academic freedom . On the contrary , criticizing society in the boldest terms possible is what intellectuals are there to do . So Brandeis ought to have stood by its invitation . But there are some who would ask why it made the invitation in the first place . If the institution was worried about generating controversy , all it had to do was Google her name to discover that Hirsi Ali is a very controversial person . Indeed , her views fall well outside of the mainstream . Hirsi Ali 's story is undeniably moving . Born in Somalia , she was the victim of female genital mutilation at the age of 5 and was betrothed into an arranged marriage , which she escaped by seeking political asylum in the Netherlands . Thereafter she emerged as a forceful , politically engaged critic of Islam -- her memoir , `` Infidel , '' is an extraordinary testament to the horrors that fundamentalism can wrought on an individual . Her ethnicity excuses her from the charge of racism ; her politics is not reactionary but rather a very muscular variety of liberal universalism . However , the Islam that Hirsi Ali knew and denounces is a narrow cultural experience -- not the reality of the religion as a whole . There is no female genital mutilation in the Koran ; tribes do it because it is a custom , not a legitimate religious instruction . Likewise , the extreme Islamism that threatens the West -- and against which the right campaigns -- is a small , geographically limited phenomenon that is almost unrelated to the considerably more liberal forms of Islam practiced in , say , Bangladesh or Europe . It is true that Taliban Afghanistan or Iran have been theocratic , but this does n't make Islam incompatible with democracy . Far from it : Muslim political protest has been the heart and soul of the Arab Spring . And Hirsi Ali 's insistence that `` violence is inherent in Islam '' is absurd . Violence is inherent in all of humanity -- you only have to read the Judeo-Christian Old Testament to find that out . And if violence was a purely Muslim thing , would n't we expect Muslims universally to hold fascistic views ? On the contrary , evidence suggests that globally they lean toward democracy , pluralism and a qualified gender equality . Moreover , Hirsi Ali 's personal experience of life growing up in war-torn Africa is a million miles away from that lived among second- or third-generation Muslim immigrants in Europe . There the picture is one of integration , spoiled only by a handful of radicals who were tolerated by both the state and the Islamic community for far too long . British journalist Fraser Nelson recently wrote a widely read piece pointing out that newspaper headlines about Islamic fundamentalism give a distorted view of religious relations in the United Kingdom . He noted , `` Last year ... the Jews of Bradford were facing the closure of their synagogue . Its roof was leaking , and the few dozen remaining regulars could not afford the repairs ... As things turned out , the synagogue was saved after a fundraising campaign led by a local mosque . Zulfi Karim , the secretary of Bradford 's Council of Mosques , now refers to ( synagogue chairman Rudi ) Leavor -- who fled the Nazis -- as his 'newfound brother . ' `` When I wrote a piece in the same newspaper arguing that Islam was very close to Britishness in its obsession with good manners , hospitality and charity , I received dozens of abusive missives from white supremacists . It was a reminder that the flipside of Islamism is anti-Muslim hate . Which , I 'm afraid to say , is given propaganda material by the well-dressed , middle-class intellectuals who appear so frequently on our televisions to pronounce that `` violence is inherent in Islam . '' All of which does n't mean that Hirsi Ali should be driven from the public sphere . On the contrary , her story is a testament to the evil that does exist in the world , and Brandeis should have stood by its decision to honor her . The right to speak freely should never be tampered with . But in the conversation about the limits to this speech that has followed , let this one fact be remembered : Hirsi Ali 's views are deemed politically incorrect for good reason .
Timothy Stanley : Brandeis withdrew honorary degree offer to Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali . He says move runs counter to academic freedom , Brandeis should n't have withdrawn it . Had university vetted her , it would have seen her views on Islam are narrow , he says . Stanley : Hirsi Ali 's views are deemed politically incorrect for good reason .