Ayaan Hirsi Al, a vocal critic of Islam and staunch feminist, has today hit back at a Massachusetts university which withdrew its offer of an honorary degree following student protests.

Brandeis University announced in a statement yesterday it would not honor the Somali-born activist at next month's graduation ceremony.

'The slur on my reputation is not the worst aspect of this episode. More deplorable is that an institution set up on the basis of religious freedom should today so deeply betray its own founding principles,' Hirsi Ali wrote in a statement, according to The Boston Globe...

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation's largest Muslim advocacy group, said, 'It is unconscionable that such a prestigious university would honor someone with such openly hateful views.' ...