Excerpt:
It seems odd that the big brains at Brandeis University were unaware of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's controversial views on religion, considering that her bestselling memoir is called Infidel.
Ms. Hirsi Ali is a Somali-born critic of Islam and campaigner for women's rights. A fierce opponent of genital mutilation, she was herself cut as a child. She has been a member of the Dutch parliament, and author of the screenplay for Submission, a film about Muslim women's oppression (its director was murdered). She was subject to so many threats against her life that she eventually left the Netherlands and became a U.S. citizen.
She has also, along the way, made inflammatory remarks about Islam, the religion she was born into and renounced. The quote that is most often brought up by her critics is one she made in 2007 to Reason magazine: "Once [Islam] is defeated, it can mutate into something peaceful. It's very difficult to even talk about peace now. They're not interested in peace. I think that we are at war with Islam. And there's no middle ground in wars."