Those of you who read my posts regularly will know that there are two things I cannot abide. One is hypocrisy and the other is hypocrisy that seeks to pacify those who would tell the ugly truth about radical Islam. This week Brandeis University really set my hair on fire when within the span of a few days they decided to honor a woman I deeply respect by choosing to confer upon her an honorary degree in Social Justice-and then turned around faster than a child’s top and insulted her-and the collective intelligence of women across our nation-by reversing that decision.

The woman in question is Ayaan Hirsi Ali, activist, true feminist (in that she promotes the education of women across the world and speaks out against the rape culture of the Middle East), and truth teller about the tragic existences of women and girls under radical Islam.

It seems that the liberal faculty at Brandeis objected to her past criticism of radical Islam, which Ali correctly points out was available to them online with a simple Google search. Actually the school was reacting to a petition launched by students on Change.org protesting the University’s decision to confer an honorary degree on Ali at their commencement this year. This struck me as odd for a number of reasons, but let’s just review the top five by examining her own words on each point.

1) Ali speaks out against the anti-woman, rape culture of the Middle East

“In the middle of the east, most women are banished from the public rooms, and when they are glimpsed at all they are covered from head to toe in garments dark and ugly. Many never learn to read or write; they are forced into marriage and seem to live pregnant ever after. They have no reproductive rights. If they are raped, the burden of proof lies on them to show their innocence, and in some rooms, women and girls as young as 13 are publicly flogged and stoned to death for sexual disobedience.”

2) Ali is what I refer to as a “true” feminist-one who speaks out for the equality of women and girls, especially when it comes to their rights to living as whole people without bearing the scars (both physical and psychological) inflicted by radical Islam.

“In what should have been beautiful courtyards are shallow unmarked graves, wherein lie girls who died because they were deemed not worth feeding. In the east, some girls are transported as property–often with their parents’ connivance–to gratify adults’ sexual desires. Girls work the land, fetch water, tend to livestock, cook and clean from dawn to dusk with no pay. Others are beaten with impunity. Hundreds of thousands die while giving birth because they lack the most basic hygiene and health care.”

3) Ali survived the evils that she stands against, all in the name of radical Islam, including Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

“I am familiar with this debate (regarding FGM) in two ways. First, I come from a culture where virtually every woman has undergone genital cutting. I was 5 years old when mine were cut and sewn. Second, while serving as a member of parliament in the Netherlands, I was assigned the portfolio for the emancipation and integration of immigrant women. One of my missions was to combat practices such as FGM.”

4) Ali sees promise in the small “wins” by women in the Muslim world

“When I see millions of women in Afghanistan defying threats from the Taliban and lining up to vote; when I see women in Saudi Arabia defying an absurd ban on female driving; and when I see Tunisian women celebrating the conviction of a group of policemen for a heinous gang rape, I feel more optimistic than I did a few years ago.”

5) She can, and does, show the West how to combat the scourge of radical Islam

 “But I believe it has created an opportunity for traditional forms of authority—including patriarchal authority—to be challenged, and even for the religious justifications for the oppression of women to be questioned.

Yet for that opportunity to be fulfilled, we in the West must provide the right kind of encouragement. Just as the city of Boston was once the cradle of a new ideal of liberty, we need to return to our roots by becoming once again a beacon of free thought and civility for the 21st century. When there is injustice, we need to speak out, not simply with condemnation, but with concrete actions.”

So, tell me, how do the five points above not embody the essence of working for Social Justice? Oh, wait, silly me! Of course! It is because they tend to mirror a more conservative view of social justice-meaning the pursuit of a society of law and order where people are held accountable for their sins against others with real consequences instead of being automatically excused for following a path prescribed by a religion that has wrought death, destruction and fear on this earth since the 5th century.

Oh, sorry, my mistake. I guess it’s ok then-NOT.