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Stanford Review reporter Tristan Abbey has an in-depth investigative piece on how his university quashed speaking invitations to Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (before he became Pope). It’s a maddening, emblematic look at the reign of p.c. and dhimmitude in the ivory tower–and reconfirmation of 多样性神话 exposed at Stanford 12 years ago by David Sacks and Peter Thiel. The more things change…
he wind of freedom blows, our university motto declares, but perhaps only until someone gets offended.
A three-month investigation by the Stanford Review has discovered that university organizations declined to invite two high-profile intellectuals—Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, before his inauguration as Pope Benedict XVI—after consultation with faculty and students who objected to their views.
The thinkBIG Conference considered inviting Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born Dutch feminist critic of Islam, to speak on the subject of “Violence Against Women.” Conference organizers sought the advice of the Muslim Student Awareness Network (MSAN), which advised against the invitation. The conference nixed the invite shortly thereafter.
A conference representative confirmed off the record that thinkBIG was trying to avoid “controversy” by not inviting Hirsi Ali. On the record, thinkBIG denied that pressure from MSAN killed the idea.
This is the second time in as many years that an invitation to Hirsi Ali has been nixed. The Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies considered inviting her in 2006, but decided against it, citing security and speaker costs.
During 2000-01, the head of the Stanford Presidential Lectures on the Humanities and Arts suggested inviting Cardinal Ratzinger. Opposition arose from “liberal Catholic quarters,” according to one senior faculty member, and the idea was dropped.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the professor said that these were examples “of a speaker who counts as ‘conservative’ whose invitation was aborted.”
