U.S. university drops plan to honor critic of Islam

[riky]

U.S. university drops plan to honor critic of Islam

<p><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/u-university-drops-plan-honor-activist-critical-islam-140409493.html"><img src="http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/Ubbf0Vj.HJ8XRLmmnZfQ1g--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTg2O3E9NzU7dz0xMzA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2014-04-09T155334Z_1_CBREA38185D00_RTROPTP_2_EU-HIRSI-ALI.JPG" width="130" height="86" alt="Somali-born Hirsi Ali speaks at the EU Parliament in Brussels" align="left" title="Somali-born Hirsi Ali speaks at the EU Parliament in Brussels" border="0" /></a>By Scott Malone and Daniel Lovering BOSTON (Reuters) - Brandeis University has decided not to award an honorary degree to a Somali-born women's rights activist who has branded Islam as violent and &quot;a nihilistic cult of death.&quot; The private university outside Boston said it had decided not to bestow the honor on Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former Dutch parliamentarian who has been a staunch critic of Islam and its treatment of women. Hirsi Ali said in a 2003 interview with a Dutch newspaper that, by modern standards, the Muslim prophet Mohammad could be considered a pedophile. In a 2007 interview with the London Evening Standard, she called Islam &quot;a destructive, nihilistic cult of death.&quot; &quot;We cannot overlook certain of her past statements that are inconsistent with Brandeis University's core values,&quot; the university said in a statement late Tuesday. &quot;We regret that we were not aware of these statements earlier.&quot; The move followed an open letter from the Council on American-Islamic Relations to the university's president, Frederick Lawrence, saying that to do so was &quot;unworthy of the American tradition of civil liberty and religious freedom.&quot; Nihad Awad, the group's national executive director, said that &quot;offering such an award to a promoter of religious prejudice such as Ali is equivalent to promoting the work of white supremacists and anti-Semites.&quot; Hirsi Ali said in a statement on Wednesday that she was &quot;completely shocked&quot; by Brandeis' decision.</p><br clear="all"/>

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