A Fox News contributor has accused Brandeis University of committing an “honor killing” by withdrawing plans to confer an honorary degree upon a controversial critic of Islam.

In an April 11 FoxNews.com op-ed, contributor Zev Chafets attacked Brandeis' decision to withdraw a planned honorary degree to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a staunch critic of Islam, after protests from students and faculty of the university. Chafets claimed that the university “committed an honor killing” when it announced that Hirsi Ali would no longer receive the award at this year's commencement. Chafets equated the university's decision to a heinous criminal act:

Brandeis University committed an honor killing this week. The victim was a Somali woman named Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Honor killings are depressingly common in the Middle East: punishment for women guilty of being raped, losing their virginity outside of marriage, adultery, dressing provocatively or simply embarrassing a male relative. These murders -- most of which go unreported and unprosecuted -- are usually acid-in-the-face, blood-on-the-floor affairs meant not only to salvage the good name of the dishonored family but to intimidate other women (and gay men) into abiding by the prevailing code of behavior.

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The Brandeis commencement this year is conferring an honorary degree on Jill Abramson, the gifted and outspoken editor of The New York Times. Hopefully she won't let the occasion pass without reminding her hosts of who is absent from the podium: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a woman whose reputation is the victim of an honor killing, Brandeis-style.

Brandeis withdrew its invitation to Hirsi Ali after students mounted an online petition in protest. According to The New York Times, the American Enterprise Institute fellow has called Islam “a destructive, nihilistic cult of death.” Frederick M. Lawrence, the president of the university, told the Times that although Brandeis had decided against conferring Hirsi Ali with an honorary degree, she “is welcome to join us on campus in the future to engage in a dialogue.” Ali has responded to the decision by accusing the university of stifling speech. 

Conservative outlets have attacked the decision as anti-Semitic.