Comments on: Why Columbia President Bollinger Should Be Celebrated for Inviting Ahmadinejad

By: MM

MM — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Yes Philip, "completely justified", as in 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, and the CIA (working through the Pakistani ISI) helped create and fund the Taliban to begin with, in the name of those lofty ideals of access to markets and Caspian oil for the west. Oh yes, I'd say the invasion and destruction of Afghanistan were indeed "completely justified," and especially now that we see what a tremendous achievement we've made there, bringing justice to the perpetrators of 9-11, not to mention so much peace and prosperity.

I love your blog, but please, get a clue. The Jon Stewart line (Iraq baaaaad, Afghanistan greeeeaaaat) is pathetically wishful thinking; thought you had more intellectual integrity than that.

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Bollinger claims that there is some important relationship between the invitation that was issued to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Columbia’s commitments to the free exchange of ideas. What is this relationship? Do the aforementioned commitments require the invitation? If not, and thus not inviting Ahmadinejad is also consistent with these commitments, then what was the reason for the invitation? Moreover, that ideas can be exchanged at all is an acknowledgement of the fact that ideas can be debated and analyzed without the presence of particular proponents of the ideas in question. Since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s ideas can be debated, analyzed and otherwise exchanged without him, what was the reason for the invitation?

By: Muslims Against Sharia

Muslims Against Sharia — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Muslims Against Sharia condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the decision of Columbia University to provide a speaking venue for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Apparently letting Akbar Rafsanjani speak at the National Cathedral was not the height of American Dhimmitude, because providing a venue for the world's foremost anti-Semite, whose proclaimed goal is the destruction of the USA and Israel, definitely takes the cake. What is surprising is that we don't hear any complaints from Columbia alumni who should be ashamed of their silence.

More on the subject: link to americanchronicle.com
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Why Does Columbia host Ahmadinejad?

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

No fan of A-Nejad myself, but I gotta say Bollinger was an ass. He began well enough, and showing up A-N on the holocaust is a valid (if too easy) knock... but all the BS about Iraq and Iran as an "enemy", no less the allusion to "evil" and his other gloating overstatements were really stupid. "Will you wipe us off the map?"

But A-Nejad took the bait and threw himself into the holocaust "further research" question.

Idiots throwing mud at idiots.

By: Ken Hoop

Ken Hoop — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

As further research one might read Arno Mayer's "Why Did The Heavans Not Darken?"

This Jewish Princeton University history profs combined functionalist/smaller figured
holocaust is not commonly recognized by the masses who assume quite a different story.

By: lysias

lysias — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Speaking of nuanced views of the Holocaust, the second volume of Saul Friedlaender's Nazi Germany and the Jews has now been published. From it, I learn that the immediate cause of the decision to expel all Jews from Germany (to sites where there was already mass murder of Jews) was a couple of terrorist incidents committed by Jews, one in Berlin, in early 1942.

By: Ben Brackley

Ben Brackley — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

One positive thing that can be said about Ahmadinejad (and there are a lot of negative things one could say) is that at least he is willing to appear before and answer questions from a hostile audience and interviewer. May not be much, but it is more than can be said of our President. And we live in a liberal democracy that theoretically values such conduct far more.

See Greenwald's take today:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/index.html

By: Alan

Alan — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Here is Greenwald on Columbia and Ahmadinejad and the threats made by Democratic State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver:

Monday September 24, 2007 11:05 EST
Columbia to be punished for hosting the new Hitler enemy

"All of the hysteria over Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speaking at Columbia University is so tiresome for so many reasons, beginning with the fact that it is all rather transparently motivated by exactly what Juan Cole says: "The real reason his visit is controversial is that the American right has decided the United States needs to go to war against Iran. Ahmadinejad is therefore being configured as an enemy head of state."

In their minds, we are at war with Iran -- even though, in reality, i.e., according to our Constitution, we are not -- and all of the ensuing hysteria is rooted in the fantasy world they occupy in which Iran is our Enemy at War. By their nature, such fantasies cannot be reasoned with.

This desire to prevent people from speaking when they express views that one finds offensive is just always baffling. That is true in general, and includes even pettier though still inane suppression efforts such as this one, which recently resulted in the recission of an invitation to Larry Summers to speak at an event for the University of California regents. Other than converting the individual into a martyr and dramatically elevating their importance, what do people think is accomplished when a person with a certain viewpoint is denied a forum?

In any event, there is not much new worth saying about the "debate" over whether Columbia should have invited Ahmadinejad to speak. People either believe in the value of having academic institutions be a venue for airing all viewpoints or they do not.

Exactly as is true for the First Amendment, it is so often the case that those who claim to believe in this principle when it comes to ideas they like suddenly find all sorts of reasons why the "principle" does not apply when it comes to ideas they hate most. And -- as is true for Osama bin Laden -- nobody has done more to inflate the importance and power of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (who, just by the way, is not even the leader of Iran, let alone the WorldWide Evil Axis of Hitlerian Dictators) than those who have focused on him obsessively.

But what is new, and what most certainly is worth commenting upon, is this extremely disturbing report from The New York Sun regarding the threats made by Democratic State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to use state power to punish Columbia for inviting a speaker whom Silver dislikes. Silver -- who, among other things, has long been a leader in efforts to free convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard from prison -- did not even bother to disguise the threats he was making:

"As the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, prepares to address Columbia University today amid a storm of student protest, state and city lawmakers say they are considering withholding public funds from the school to protest its decision to invite the leader to campus.

In an interview with The New York Sun, the speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, said lawmakers, outraged over Columbia's insistence on allowing the Iranian president to speak at its World Leaders Forum, would consider reducing capital aid and other financial assistance to the school.

Lawmakers warned about other consequences for Columbia and its president, Lee Bollinger, who has resisted campus and public pressure to cancel Mr. Ahmadinejad's appearance today, arguing that Columbia's commitment to scholarship requires the school to directly confront offensive ideas.

"There are issues that Columbia may have before us that obviously this cavalier attitude would be something that people would recall," Mr. Silver said. "Obviously, there's some degree of capital support that has been provided to Columbia in the past. These are things people might take a different view of . . . knowing that this is that kind of an institution" . . .

"It's not going to go away just because this episode ends. Columbia University has to know . . . that they will be penalized," an assemblyman of Brooklyn, Dov Hikind, who also attended the rally, said. The lawmaker said Mr. Ahmadinejad should be arrested when he sets foot on campus."

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/09/24/ahmadinejad/index.html

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By: lester

lester — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

ahmedenajds holocaust denial is pretty much exactly what most muslims i know believe, as well as his opinions on israel and the US. I don't know why they believe it but they do. they to go on about "further research" when pressed they have no idea what they are talking about. I try to explain that you know, this isn't considered to be any mystery, all the stuff is well documented. It's a bizarre phenomenon. We usually understand each other but that issue it's different. You hit a wall.

But my guess is virtually all our "allies" in that region believe the same thing, if not worse.

By: Christopher Brown

Christopher Brown — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

There's a pathos to Phil's attempts to look for something to celebrate in the boorish behavior of Bollinger. This kind of rudeness is par for the course in New York City, but a lot of Americans are grossed out and increasingly fed up with the bayunskis and mouthpieces such as Bollinger:

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/09/24/us.iran/?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail