Now, I'm no fan of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but I thought the way Columbia University treated him was in quite poor taste. Here's how the president of the university, Lee Bollinger, introduced his invited guest according to The New York Times:
He said, “Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator,” adding, “You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated.”I can't say I disagree with Bollinger's statements, but still, the guy's an INVITED speaker. You'd think a high falutin' intellectual ivy league school like Columbia University would have a bit more class and would have let Ahmadinejad's own words implicate him as being perhaps an evil tyrannical dictator. Instead, it seems Bollinger invited him over so he could throw eggs at him from the get go. Seems like some cheap playground tactics to me.The Iranian president, who was seated 10 feet away from him on the stage, wore a frozen smile. The anti-Ahmadinejad portion of the audience, which looked to be about 70 percent of it, cheered and chortled.
Mr. Bollinger praised himself and Columbia for showing they believed in freedom of speech by inviting the Iranian president, then continued his attack. He said it was “well documented” that Iran was a state sponsor of terrorism, accused Iran of fighting a proxy war against the United States in Iraq and questioned why Iran has refused “to adhere to the international standards” of disclosure for its nuclear program.“I doubt,” Mr. Bollinger concluded, “that you will have the intellectual courage to answer these questions.”
Giving such a vilified person a chance to speak to a crowd of Americans seemed like a rather noble show of how much the United States values freedom of speech. Unfortunately, based on this visit, I'm afraid the international community around us may only use this as another example of how the U.S. is just a big bully to the globe.
2 comments:
I caught some of this on CNN. I only saw the last half of his speech, so I didn't see the intro. I was suprised though when I heard all the post commentary from the news channel. I don't have a view on the Iranian president one way or the other only because I am not educated on it well enough to pass any sort of judgement. What surprised me was that as I watched him deliver his speech without the knowledge of the intro I was impressed with his demeanor and stature.
Now dodging the questions thrown at him and some of his remarks on homosexuality and the holocaust were a more than surprising to me. Once again I didn't hear this part of his speech. What I did hear and like though was his recommendation for a thought process of why 9/11 happened. If you find that out and workon that then that is probably a better means of protection and peace than going to war.
I'm right with the Pimp on this one. I'm not a Ahmadinejad fan by any means, but enemy or not you don't invite someone as your guest just to lambaste them.
The Saracens, the Muslims who eventually conquered the European Christians from the Crusades, were gracious victors. Once they defeated them, they allowed the Europeans to leave unharmed. It's too bad that Muslims who so fiercely maintain that they are enforcing the will of God don't have the nobility of their religious forebearers.
And now a prestigious American institution is similarly inhospitable. We as Americans should have better manners, even to a snake-oil salesman like Ahmadinejad.
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