Brown University cancels Muslim who renounced jihad

***Update 11-22-06***  Michelle reports Darwish has been re-invited.  From Michael Graham:

UPDATE: Freedom wins! Just interviewed Ms. Darwish and she told me that Brown has now re-extended an invitation for her to speak--this time on behalf of the entire school! The blogosphere and talk radio win another victory for free speech.

Adam Brodsky at the New York Post explains:

MUSLIMS are often accused of not speaking out sufficiently against terrorism. Nonie Darwish knows one reason why: Their fellow Muslims won't let them.

Darwish, who comes from Egypt and was born and raised a Muslim, was set to tell students at Brown University about the twisted hatred and radicalism she grew to despise in her own culture. A campus Jewish group, Hillel, had contacted her to speak there Thursday.

But the event was just called off.

Muslim students had complained that Darwish was "too controversial." They insisted she be denied a platform at Brown, and after contentious debate Hillel agreed.

Weird: No one had said boo about such Brown events as a patently anti-Israel "Palestinian Solidarity Week." But Hillel said her "offensive" statements about Islam "alarmed" the Muslim Student Association, and Hillel didn't want to upset its "beautiful relationship" with the Muslim community.

So in order to maintain this "beautiful relationship" Hillel will take their marching orders from the Muslim Community.  And turn their back on a Muslim woman who has respect for Israel, speaks for peace with Israel and denounces Islamic Jihad. 

"Speaking out for human rights, women's rights, equality or even peace with Israel is a taboo that can have serious consequences" in the Arab world, Darwish says. In part to drive home that point, she wrote a book, just out. Its title says it all: "Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel, and the War on Terror."

Hillel's decision was backed up by Brown's women's center which backed out of co-sponsoring the speech.  Kesher Talk has much more, via Michelle.

Darwish's message is invaluable for our age. Too few Arabs and Muslims share her desire for peace with Israel, equality and cultural reform; too few speak - in their living rooms or mosques - about the need to root out radicals from among them. When one Muslim voice does raise such sentiments, it deserves to be heard. Too bad the young Muslims (and their Jewish enablers) at Brown won't hear it.

And if those values can't be espoused in America - land of tolerance and free speech - well, what hope is there for meaningful cultural change.