Disclaimer On Dutch Activist’s Visit Duplicitous

To the editors:



Re “Dutch Activist Discusses Islam,” news, May 10:

Today, a visitor and guest of the University, the Dutch parliamentarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali, is greeted with posters for two events, at the Kennedy School and at the Center for Government and International Studies, both bearing a lengthy disclaimer that while the organizers welcome “dialogue” and all that good stuff, these events should not be taken as endorsement of Hirsi Ali’s views, nor should she be considered “to be representative for the Dutch public opinion on these issues.” It may be worth reminding the community that this disclaimer exists because Hirsi Ali has lived under the most rigorous police protection since the murder of the filmmaker Theo van Gogh in November 2004, when a note threatening her life was found pinned to his body. It is a fearful and craven capitulation on Harvard’s part to attach such notices to its official events. In seven years I don’t recall having seen this before—what one might expect if the guest were Jean Marie Le Pen or a member of Hamas.



ERIC WEINBERGER

Cambridge, Mass.

May 10, 2006



The writer is preceptor in expository writing.