Columbia won't cancel Ahmadinejad speech

Seattle Post-Intelligencer ^ | September 21, 2007 | ASSOCIATED PRESS

[indcons]

Columbia University said it does not plan to call off a speech by Iran's president despite pressure from critics including the City Council speaker, who said the Ivy League school was providing a forum for "hate-mongering vitriol."

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is traveling to New York to address the United Nations' General Assembly. He was scheduled to appear Monday at a question-and-answer session with Columbia faculty and students as part of the school's World Leaders Forum.

City Council speaker Christine Quinn called Thursday for the university to rescind the invitation, saying "the idea of Ahmadinejad as an honored guest anywhere in our city is offensive to all New Yorkers."

Quinn said Ahmadinejad was coming to the city "for one reason - to spread his hate-mongering vitriol on the world stage."

Ahmadinejad has called the Holocaust "a myth" and called for Israel to be destroyed.

His planned appearance at Columbia also was condemned by Jewish groups including the Jewish Defense Organization, which described Ahmadinejad as "the Hitler of Iran."

Columbia spokesman Robert Hornsby said Thursday there was no plan to cancel the appearance, though the university dropped plans for an Ahmadinejad speech last year because of security and logistical problems. The decision came after a Jewish activist group expressed outrage over the invitation.

[rmlew]

Iranian President, and former terrorist leader, Ahmadinejad’s Columbia University speech is on. Bloomberg News service apparently confused last year’s cancellation by Columbia of Ahmadinejad with this year. The Monday afternoon speech is on - and has been cleverly scheduled to correspond with the main anti-Ahmadinejad demonstration at UN Plaza in New York organized by the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations.

Newt Gingrich revealed on Fox News this morning that the New York Times editorial board will host Ahmadinejad for lunch at the Four Seasons hotel on Monday. “That is like hosting Adolf Hitler to lunch in 1940,” said Dave Bossie of Citizens United.
SOURCE: http://www.iran.org/

The same university administration, which won’t recognize the ROTC, despite the support of a majority of students, has no problem with giving legitimacy to an Islamist terrorist leader.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/weeklystandard/20070920/cm_weeklystandard/columbiauniversityahmadinejadyesrotcno_1

Jim Gilchrist, was recently invited to return to Columbia, after last years stage-storming, this time by the Columbia Political Union. However the invitation was unceremonially revoked a day later.
http://www.wnbc.com/news/14143541/detail.html?rss=ny&psp=news

Columbia does not respect free speech. It never has. This is simply about improving the international “prestige” and leftist bona fides of Columbia University.

Sincerely,

Ron Lewenberg
Founding President (1999-2001)
Columbia College Conservative Club

[gleeaikin]

“Cutting off Iran’s access to refined gas imports will certainly get Tehran’s attention...”

Good move, they have lots of oil but little refining capacity. Furthermore, refineries are a lot easier to take out than hardened underground nuclear sites. Hard to run tanks and an airforce without petrol.

[red irish]

Last night on the O’Reilly he mentioned that rotc was not allowed to come on their campus,but this guy is ok. Lawyer said the government should take any federal funds from them because they won’t let the rotc on campus.

[Zechariah_8_13]

I’m stuned.

[juliej]

Columbia will invite Imadinnerjackete to be a “visiting” professor next - the school welcomes anti-Semitic radicals such as Edward Said. In fact, in even ENDOWS CHAIRS FOR THEM!!!!!!! Shameful - but they will not allow ROTC on campus!

[red irish]

Maybe those Iranians should be on hand to ask the little snot some serious questions.

[pillut48]

A few things, Mengele’s work has no real scientific merit so it would really be no help. If it could actually help then yes why not? He was a very sick man, but ignoring discoveries that could help us because we don’t like the discoverer is just plain dumb. These comments may be the most incredible things I've EVER seen posted on FR!! :-o Appalling. Simply appalling. Sorry. As a Christian, I can't go for it.

[Mr. Blonde]

So if he had discovered the cure for cancer, we should disregard it because he was a sick bastard?

[elizabetty]

If Columbia were shown a Minute Man ID Card with Mahmoud’s face on it they would surely cancel him then.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

Now tell us what Wikipedia has to say about Mahmoud Amadinejad.

[SlayerOfBunnies]

I’d rather see the cash going to some school that *isn’t* a larval liberal brainwashing camp like Columbia. Your comment earlier about the ‘best and brightest’ going there made me snicker btw...

So I assume that such luminaries as Madeleine Albright, Hans Blix, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Barack Obama, and George Stephanopoulos (all alumni or attendees) make that list of best and brightest. But I digress.

[firebrand]

From the Weekly Standard piece by Bill Kristol:

"In fact, the introduction with 'sharp challenges' by Bollinger makes the situation even more of a disgrace. Now there will be the appearance of real dialogue, of Ahmadinejad answering challenges, which further legitimizes the notion that Holocaust denial, say, is a subject of legitimate and reasonable debate."

[wpa_mikeb]

I had the television on in the background today, did I hear correctly that Ahmadinejad is now planning to meet with the editorial board of the New York Times? Did I hear that right?

Can anyone verify that? Or am I losing what’s left of my mind?

[Mr. Blonde]

Let’s see a Secretary of State, a Supreme Court Justice, a senator and presidential candidate, a Swedish minister and the head of ABC’s Washington correspondents. Yeah I would say they are all pretty bright. I might not agree with them, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t smart. At least I hope it doesn’t, otherwise what does it say about us as a country if that is the best we can do?

Find a school that does as well developing new technology and isn’t a liberal brainwashing camp and let your representatives know that is where you want your money sent.

They have brought in results regardless of political philosophy.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

A speaker we don’t like? How about a genocidal madman who’s actively murdering our Marines. All the glowing achievements of Columbia’s research department that you can copy and paste from Wikipedia don’t do a thing to change that fact. If you think managing 60 patents gives Columbia a pass to give this apocalyptic, mass murdering madman a forum, you’re way beyond help.

[Mr. Blonde]

I'm guessing you can read it yourself. Here is the link though.

Or just tell me how we are better off without the contributions Columbia has made to our lives? And how his speech justifies shutting ourselves off from any future contributions they might make?

[SlayerOfBunnies]

Lol - we’re better off not funding it as taxpayers. BTW, nice try on the straw man argument about ‘if Mengele discovered a cure for cancer would we use it’. The question is should we *fund* it (Columbia in its support of a terrorist or a Nazi in support of well, Nazism)? The answer is no.

[Mr. Blonde]

First off it is 600 patents, and would it have made you happier if I had gone to the linked original articles about Columbia’s contributions?

I guess I’m beyond help then because I don’t think they need anything to get a pass for giving him a forum. Giving people like him a forum is just one of many reasons we are better than our enemies. No one is forcing you to go or ever hear anything he says. Some people are interested in what he has to say, and I think a Q&A with him would be very interesting.

[Mr. Blonde]

How much is Columbia paying for him to speak? I have never seen that discussed but simply having him speak is not support of terrorism in my book. It is increasing dialogue which is a good thing.

And maybe I understood what was said differently, but I took it to mean that we should not use Mengele’s research because of how it was obtained. Not that we should support it, which obviously I disagree with, but we should not use it even if it was published and freely available.

[keats5]

This will backfire, not right away, but eventually. Columbia was once a respected university. Eventually, Columbia grads may find that potential employers prefer graduates from schools that teach more accurately about reality.