The left wing bigotry against Ali has entered into our family feud because of my brother’s desire to gift Brandeis with our father’s collection of WWII pictures. While Robert Schwartz was a supporter of Brandeis (as most American Jews are), he was also very militant against the sort of politically correct left wing behavior shown by Brandeis and Yale. I worry that Robert might be offended at this important part of his heritage ending up at a place so willing to sacrifice the telling of truth to publically correctness.
Muhammad Syed, the co-founder and Executive Director of Ex-Muslims of North America
“As a former Muslim with friends and loved ones who are Muslim, I am disappointed with the behavior of the Muslim Students Association. There’s a pattern of silencing dissent that runs through the Muslim world both today and throughout much of its history, which we all need to work together to end. That effort should include all the signatories of the letter, including the Yale MSA, a group that I believe should lead the fight against fundamentalism and work towards fostering an open and honest dialogue.
I ask this of the MSA: If we consider Hirsi Ali’s ideas to be unworthy or inflammatory, is the appropriate response to engage with and counter those arguments or to prevent her from speaking altogether? Would the Palestinian (and other) MSA members consider it productive if Jewish or Israeli students tried to shut down any debate on Israeli war policies due to it being disrespectful?
The grand tradition of challenging orthodoxy, demanding change, and embodying the revolutionary spirit at great universities has somehow been lost. As Muslim students at Yale (and other universities), you are uniquely positioned to bridge the gap and bring about change that is sorely needed in the Muslim world. Instead, somehow, you’ve settled on defending the status quo. If you cannot muster the intellectual courage to step up and change the world, who else will?
There will never be reform or improvement if you are unwilling to even hear out ideas that are threatening to your beliefs. The complete lack of introspection, self-criticism, and demands for improvement paved the way for my disillusionment with the Muslim community many years ago and remains a main reason why I believe the Muslim community lacks the will to adapt to the modern world.
I look around the Muslim intellectual community, and I wonder: Where are the blistering critiques of Zakir Naik, a charlatan that is quite literally destroying the future of the Muslim world by peddling unscientific lies, who says apostates like me should be killed? Where are the books written debunking Harun Yahya, and the denunciations of the Islamic Society of North America for peddling his Creationist clap-trap?
Instead of trying to ban Ayaan Hirsi Ali, how about inviting her or other ex-Muslims for a dialogue? Perhaps even hosting debates on how to critically evaluate which parts of Islamic policy and law need to be reformed instead of plugging your ears and pretending as if the problems don’t exist? As the educated elite of Muslims, where are your writings about the problems of creating incurious generations and the dangers of not promoting critical thought? What about championing the need to find actual evidence of our shared history?
You have the ability to help improve the lives of apostates, LGBTQ members of your community, and subjugated women. You can lobby to pass legislation on eliminating forced marriages and raise funds to help those who need to escape abusive situations instead of pretending as if it doesn’t happen in Muslim households. You can act as watchdogs and condemn those religious leaders who encourage women to stay with abusive families. You can encourage Muslim women to seek civil divorce instead of going through a patriarchal religious authority who, too often, denies them agency. You can both celebrate World Hijab Day and defend the right of women to reject modesty codes without facing social or legal repercussions. You can do so much more to better the state of Muslims and Muslim society, but instead you spend your time silencing criticism.
There are a million ways in which you can transform the world, but if you want a better tomorrow, a tomorrow that is clearly within your grasp, it requires moral and intellectual courage as well as honesty. That change will not come if Muslims refuse to accept criticism and their allies defend them, even at the cost of sacrificing the liberal values they hold dear.”