Ahmadinejad visits Columbia

By Dan Sandiford
Collegian Staff
September 26, 2007

This past weekend, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited New York City to address the United Nations General Assembly. He arrived in New York after flaunting his military might with a massive parade showing off equipment and manpower. The parade also included fighter jets and radar-avoiding missiles. While presiding over the parade, Ahmadinejad made it clear that his country would not tolerate further economic sanctions from the United States or the United Nations Security Council. Throughout the parade, the crowd could be heard chanting, “Down with Israel” and “Down with the U.S.”

As Ahmadinejad takes his traveling show on the road, Columbia University announced that he would be addressing their student body. University President Lee Bollinger stated that this is very important for the promotion of free speech.

It is amusing to learn that Columbia University found it important to promote free speech from a man who has purged Iranian universities of professors that criticize his regime, held a “scholarly conference” to deny the Holocaust, ignored calls from the rest of the world to cease his country’s nuclear weapons program, and financed and gave aid to insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bollinger assured the rest of us that he would submit “a series of sharp challenges” to Ahmadinejad. No doubt Ahmadinejad lost sleep worrying about these challenges.

Bollinger challenged Ahmadinejad on his denial of the Holocaust. Engaging Ahmadinejad on this issue merely legitimizes the debate for this utterly contemptible viewpoint. The school of thought that denies the Holocaust is one of hate and one that is completely out of touch with the realities of this world.

Earlier last week, the City of New York made the very wise decision to not to allow Ahmadinejad to visit Ground Zero. Thankfully, Mayor Michael Bloomberg did not allow the head of a terrorist-sponsoring nation to make a political statement on hallowed ground.

Columbia University disgraced all the academics and dissidents that have been imprisoned or worse by Ahmadinejad. This man should not have been given a soapbox in one of our nations’ most prestigious universities. This is a man that has no understanding of the concept of free speech. He hates America and he hates the freedoms that we stand for.

U.S. military officials have repeatedly indicated that weapons, roadside bombs and other various equipment used by insurgents in Iraq, have been made in Iran. This is a man that is actively funding attacks of our troops, yet he was allowed to speak his mind at Columbia.

In 1969, Columbia University banned the Reserve Officer’s Training Program out of protest for the Vietnam War. Students that go to Columbia have to travel elsewhere in order to serve their country. In 2005, the faculty of the university denied a request to bring back the ROTC to campus. Bollinger was leading the opposition for this program to return.

Columbia University made it clear through its actions that a foreign dictator, who despises our country and values, is more welcome than our own armed services. Monday’s event went down as one of the most shameful in the university’s history. Free speech is an incredibly important component of our democracy; however, giving a pulpit to a man that has nothing but contempt for individual freedoms within his own country is a slap in the face to our founding fathers.

sandifordd1@lasalle.edu