Ira Stoll: A Conservative Defense of Brandeis University

Many conservatives are furious at Brandeis
University for rescinding its honorary degree invitation to Ayaan
Hirsi Ali over her controversial remarks about Islam. The
Weekly Standard‘s William Kristol, for example, called it
“shameful” and wrote that absent a satisfactory explanation,
Brandeis donors “shouldn’t support an institution that’s displayed
such pathetic cowardice and moral bankruptcy.” The Wall Street
Journal, meanwhile, editorialized that Brandeis’s decision
demonstrated that the Waltham, Massachusetts-based institution’s
core values “now include intolerance and the illiberal suppression
of ideas.” But Ira Stoll takes a different view. Hirsi Ali’s right
to speak was not “suppressed,” Stoll maintains, and Brandeis has
every right to decide what is in its institutional best
interest.

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