University Will Let Ahmadinejad Speak

Columbia Says It Won't Call Off Planned Appearance By Iranian President

(CBS/AP)  Columbia University said it does not plan to call off a speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad despite pressure from critics including the City Council speaker, who said the Ivy League school was providing a forum for "hate-mongering vitriol."

The Iranian president 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." She said he 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."

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

Columbia President Lee Bollinger, in announcing Ahmadinejad's upcoming appearance, described the event as part of "Columbia's long-standing tradition of serving as a major forum for robust debate." He said the Iranian president had agreed to answer questions on Israel and the Holocaust.

Ahmadinejad's trip to New York ignited debate earlier this week over his rejected request to lay a wreath at ground zero. The State Department calls Iran a state sponsor of terror, and politicians and families of Sept. 11 victims were outraged that its president might visit the site of the 2001 terror attacks.

Police rejected Ahmadinejad's request, citing construction and security concerns. In an in interview to air Sunday on 60 Minutes Ahmadinejad indicated he would not press the issue but expressed disbelief that the visit would offend Americans.

"Why should it be insulting?" Ahmadinejad asked 60 Minutes' Scott Pelley.

"Usually you go to these sites to pay your respects. And also to perhaps air your views about the root causes of such incidents," Ahmadinejad said. "I think that when I do that, I will be paying … my respect to the American nation."

[colonieny]

Shame. Overe 5000 women were stoned to death by these people .

[gilana2]

This is not about freedom of speech. This is about a private institution choosing to provide a forum to a person who has repeatedly and prominently made his agenda known. This is about Columbia University *************************. Congratulations.

[Krazcarl]

Read the lastest news from from the Iranian president blasting us and Isreal and a parade with missle carrier trucks with anti us and Isreal slogans painted on the side check your webb page take a look bet nune of you illeterates will apoligize. Your like the ones that sucked up to Hitler before the war. I caution you again be concerned over there they maintain power by brut force. Haven''t seen any american military trucks in a parade with anti Iran slogans on the side be leary. This is bad but in my case expected news. This is what happens when you cry liberal and haven''t checked the facts. Read your news I await your apolagies.

[closethippy1]

Those of you who can''t stand Iran, let me ask you: Why is it that today the most watched TV show in Iran is a series called Zero Degree Turn in which Iranian diplomats in Nazi Germany helped Jews escaped the Holocaust?
This is an Iranian production with all the characters talking in farsi, the Iranian language.
Did it really happen? You bet your behind it did!
But these are historical facts neanderthals like you can''t tolerate. It shows that things are not so black and white after all.
A little bit of gray and you guys lose your minds. Your whole world comes crumbling down. Make things a bit more complex than what you thought they were and your head explodes.
Your conspiracy theories are simply insane and it shows how little you guys know about the subject.
There''s much more to Iran and Islam than what the media shows and it''s your responsability to not let the powers that be dictate to you how you should feel about anyone.

[Krazcarl]

You people that are sticking up for Iran are just peddling your ignorance. When I was working in the hospital there was a nurse from Iran beutifull girl great professional her family connected so she was allowed to study here and became a RN She told me about life there she was in high school during the Iran Iraq war the funny story was over there they buy tapes {recordings of recordings}like the locals buy pot I asked her what would happen if caught she said the buyer depending on family staus would be put prison the seller exucution. {by the way Mickel Jackson was hot}. She can never go back for her own safty and her families. So any of you lame brains that think Iran is a OK place talk to a native living ABROAD it''s moslim nazism there very dangerous there not our friend detante is out for them it will be a tool. They aren''t and don''t want to be our friends they percieve us the enemy and don''t think for a second if they get nukes they won''t use them. There goal is to spread the koran any way they can here if you don''t want the bible OK but we can be friends and do busness, we have no desire to expand our borders Mexico and Canada have no worries that my friends is the difference

[damnedrelign]

If this Ahmadinejad is not erased, neutralized, or otherwise eliminated, the entire world will rue the days of failing to take bold, direct, ad hoc action against him and his dangerous, religious fanatics, who only have warped and detrimental plans to severely harm, if not destroy our planet. It is incumbent for us to face this cataclysmic religio-Iranian phenomenon at current and relatively low cost AT THIS TIME. As each moment passes, we risk bearing additional cost as measured in terms of lives, military supplies, further complications, etc. WE CAN NO LONGER WAIT.
A NUCLEAR IRAN MUST BE PREVENTED AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE, AS IRAN''S HATE-FILLED, RELIGIOUS, FANATICAL LEADERS [...CONTINUING WITH THEIR MASSIVE DECEPTION], ARE INTOXICATED WITH DELUSIONS OF POWER, DOMINATION, CONQUEST AND PUNISHMENT/REVENGE!!!

[closethippy1]

Censorship = Deficient society.
Iranian censorship = Deficient society.
American censorship = Deficient society.

Get it?

[my2centss]

Freedom of speech is not only being allowed to say what you want, but also being allowed to hear what others say. Enough censoring. If you do not like it, do not listen.

[truthheals]

Kudo''s to Columbia!

[toolmangler-2009]

They will not attack Putin because they know he would have no qualms at sending nukes our way. They won''''t attack China for the same reason. Only the little guys in the ''''Axis of Evil'''' need worry!

Posted by gramto11 at 10:01 PM : Sep 21, 2007

August 6, 2005


"Russia''s Turning Muslim, Says Mufti" is the startling headline in the Times of London today. Ravil Gaynutdin, head of the Council of Muftis of Russia, announced that Russia''s population of 144 million contains 23 million ethnic Muslims %u2013 and not, as the census indicates, 14.5 million, or, as the Orthodox Church estimates, nearer to 20 million.


We won''t have to wait too much longer, they will come to us.