Ayaan Hirsi Ali on the subversion of American universities

Published on 5/1/2024

We all know people who have loved ones studying or working at U.S. universities where violent protests have erupted over the past two weeks— and are worried about their safety. It is difficult to fathom that such events are happening on American soil and unfortunately, I am not entirely surprised.

This weekend, I was interviewed on FOX about the protests. I said that the subversion of American universities is a very serious problem. But it is not an overnight phenomenon. The events that have occurred since I made this statement only intensify the worries I have repeatedly voiced.

For almost two weeks now, protests on campuses throughout the nation have resulted in students being blocked from attending classes and Jewish students and faculty feeling unsafe and threatened. On several campuses, protestors have vandalized property, and illegally overtook campus buildings. Late last night, violence broke out at UCLA when protestors and counterprotestors clashed.

While public universities guarantee the right to protest and free speech, what we are seeing take place on campuses goes beyond that. These are Illegal and illiberal activities that have spread—on our watch and due to our appeasement—under the guise of free speech. They must not be tolerated!

We need to say it clearly: illegal acts are not peace protests and the exercise of free speech. We need to demand that colleges protect the liberties of all students and faculty and combat the ideologies that have sown a culture of victimization in which we see the world and each other divided into oppressors and oppressed.

I have been warning about the subversion of American institutions, universities, and Congress for a long time. At the University of Colorado Boulder in 2020, I said that what we see in America on our campuses, in our politics, in our corporations, in our newspapers, in our media is tribalism. We seem to be hungry for tribalism. I urged the students to not go down that path because “the world wants to come here and learn from you, those people who inherited the story of America.”

Our strength is our ideas, values, people, foundational principles, and the institutions that we built. All that is missing is for us to come together and fight to restore our institutions and regain confidence in what makes Western society unique, and the envy of all its enemies.

AHA Foundation is dedicated to defending and promoting Western freedoms for all. We are committed to expanding our work on college campuses. Because teaching critical thinking and open-minded inquiry is the only way forward.

We hope you stand with us in this critical mission.