Posted on 09/19/2007 7:33:46 PM PDT by nuconvert
Ahmadinejad to Speak on Campus
By John Davisson
SEPTEMBER 19, 2007
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, has accepted an invitation to speak at Columbia from School of International and Public Affairs interim dean John Coatsworth, according to a spokesman.
The event is scheduled to take place on Monday, September 24--the same day that Ahmadinejad is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly--as part of the World Leaders Forum and will be sponsored by SIPA.
"Necessarily, on occasion this will bring us into contact with beliefs many, most, or even all of us will find offensive and even odious," University President Lee Bollinger said in a statement. "We trust our community, including our students, to be fully capable of dealing with these occasions, through the powers of dialogue and reason."
"Opportunities to hear, challenge, and learn from controversial speakers of different views are central to the education and training of students for citizenship in a shrinking and still dangerous world. This is especially true for SIPA students, many of whose careers will require them to confront human rights and security issues throughout the globe," Coatsworth said in a statement.
Registration for the event was closed down less than an hour and a half. A university spokesman said that 600 people could fit in the event.
Almost exactly one year ago, then-Dean of SIPA Lisa Anderson invited Ahmadinejad to speak on campus during the week of the World Leaders Forum on behalf of the School. Bollinger, upon learning of the event, chose not to lend it the sponsorship of the University as a whole. One day after news of the invitation broke, Anderson rescinded it, but not before many students and alumni spoke out both in favor and against the event.
Several student leaders received invitations today to speak tomorrow with University President Lee Bollinger regarding the event. Many leaders, including the heads of class councils, several club funding boards, and a number of clubs went into a discussion last soon after hearing the news of the invitation to form a statement.
"I think that first and foremost any dialogue is positive, so even though I may not agree with what Ahmadinejad says, I think any dialogue between him … and the U.S. is a positive step," Iranian-American Sheena Shirakhon, CC '08 and a member of Students against MIlitary Intervention in Iran, said of the invitation. "Mostly, that’s the result of my belief that war in Iran … would be horribly detrimental to the Iranain people, whether you support Ahmadinejad or not."
Ahmadinejad made waves earlier in the day when it came out that he had requested an opportunity to visit Ground Zero, but that the opportunity was blocked for security reasons.
Read the full text of Bollinger's statement.
More details will be posted on columbiaspectator.com as they become available.
Only liberals would here him.
Only liberals would hear him.
Oh, my no. He'll have his little clutch of sycophants in the audience and they'll all be on the Left.
Wonder if he’ll get up and rant about the 12th Iman, like he did at the UN last time he spoke. That would be soooo enlightening for the Columbia students. (end/sarc)
Things would be different, of course, if he was a Republican...
Stand by for multiple student tazoring.
“Mr. Hitler, could we discuss your policies, sir?”
WTH has happened to this country?
Do you think Reagan or even FDR would have tolerated this?
Unless he trained his cannons on them first.
Could you folks at Columbia University ask Ahmadinejad a question for me? When does he plan nuking Columbia University ???
WTH has happened to this country?
Lone kook driving the white cargo van, please pick up the courtesy phone...lone kook driving the white cargo van, please pick up the courtesy phone.
Snipers Wanted!
In the sewer that Colombia has become, he will get a standing ovation no matter what he says. Especially if he calls for the destruction of Israel and/or the execution of George Bush.
I doubt it will be taped. I don’t think Columbia would enjoy seeing it’s students cheering the terrorist from Iran while he’s calling the American president a liar and war criminal on YouTube.
Afterward, on his flight back to Iran, a strange electro/mechanical failure should occur mid-Atlantic. Something like a middle fuel tank explosion.
Maybe this Monday would be a good day, timing-wise, for a bombing run over Natanz.
This is tantamount to Hitler speaking at a U.S. campus during WWII.
Am I hallucinating?
Absolute Bull Puckey coming from the president of an ultra leftist institution. What he really meant to say was "Necessarily, on occasion this will bring us into contact with beliefs many, most, or even all of us in the intelligentsia will find inspirational and worthy of adoption in the United States offensive and even odious," University President Lee Bollinge
“I doubt it will be taped”
I think it will be by people in the audience
didn’t this come up once before or am I having dejavu?
You beat me to it. Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo.
They’ve got to be kidding. The Muslims must be laughing themselves silly.
The world is truly turned upside down.
Oh geez. 1st he might get to go to WTC site, then we hear he’s ASKED - ASKED - specifically to “speak” at a (typically liberal) college.
On another note, love the reference to “opportunities to hear controversial people speak”.
I’d bet $$ to doughnuts they’d bluster and stall and refuse to have Ann Coulter, a “controversial speaker”, but they’ll invite a stinking murderous racist - as long as he’s anti-American, and anti-Israel!
Either order would be fine with me. This guy isn’t Baby Huey Chavez, he’s actually responsible for the deaths of U.S. troops. The notion that he is even walking free on the streets is intolerable.
“I think that first and foremost any dialogue is positive, so even though I may not agree with what Ahmadinejad says, I think any dialogue between him … and the U.S. is a positive step,” Iranian-American Sheena Shirakhon
you MAY not agree with him? So you MIGHT agree with him. This moral equivalence is a cancer on the body politic. It is sad that so many are afraid to speak the truth about Iran, making war with Iran that much more likely.
I wonder when Bush will be allowed to speak at an Iranian University?
I am going insane!!! When does this madness end????? He is not an honored guest of anyone...HE IS A MADMAN!!!!! He hates free speech, he hates liberalism..and these empty headed people would kiss his butt while he beaheads them for their immorality....can people be this dense?
He [Ehud Barak] also took part in the 1973 covert mission Operation Spring of Youth in Beirut, in which he was disguised as a woman in order to assassinate members of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
-wikipedia
Do you think Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would reciprocate by inviting the Dean of Columbia U to Teheran to speak ?...maybe he would hold her hostage there for 444 days so she would really get an insight into his thinking.
Wonder what her Jewish students think ?...this vile creep denies the Holocaust..you think they want to learn more about this devils views...
And he wanted to see Ground Zero ?...why- to celebrate ?...
Anyway thank the Columbia Dean for her treasonous thinking..you don’t have to worry about enlightening our minds—we know where our brains are-—hope you find yours someday ...What an Idiot !
I agree! When are Conservatives going to be invited to speak?
Yup, and frankly, they’d be right. At least they’re not chained down by PC think. It’s sick, I tell you; sick to even contemplate something like this!
Liberals think an ox is a bull and a bull is a cow and a cow is a horse. They’re total nutcase idiots (see tagline - where’d it go?). When they’re not scheming power-mongering thugs.
He’ll no doubt get a better reception than Ann Coulter would.
I wonder when Bush will be allowed to speak at an AMERICAN university.
I feel like I'm nightmaring. This can't be real.
i was just going to say that if ann coulter asked to speak at columbia university, they would laugh in her face.
I agree in many cases. But many are just stupid dumbed-down sheep who’ve been swallowing the company line for decades.
If you want to destroy the socialists, then destroy their ability to communicate.
They own the media, academia, and Hollywood.
Man, its 1938 all over again.
Of course they follow in the tradition of Charles Lindbergh, Joseph Kennedy, and Neville Chamberlain.
Lessons of history.......lost on liberals.
Next, how will they hide their shame?
By yelling death to the Jews like Liberals did during the Dreyfus Affair in France?
Puke. Barf. Retch.
Maybe Anne Coulter will show up and save the day.
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