What a wonderful way to ruffle some feathers (and make an important political point):
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will arrive in New York Sunday, in order to participate in the United Nations General Assembly in the city. Aside from his anticipated speech at the general assembly on Tuesday, the Iranian president is also scheduled to speak at Columbia University on Monday morning. Ahmadinejad is scheduled to address some 600 university students during his speech, including Jewish students, who will express their opinions on Ahmadinejad’s policies regarding Israel, and the fact that he is a Holocaust denier.
The university’s dean John H. Coatsworth went a step further and told Fox News that the institute would have invited Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler to appear before students had he been willing to participate in an open debate.
As much as the views of Hitler were highly offensive - though, seriously, to suggest that Hitler, a man who was responsible for the death of millions, is comparable to Ahmadinejad, a political hack who oppresses his own people but is hardly responsible for the murder of millions, just shows how hysterical Jewish leaders have become to simply make a political point - it is vital to discuss matters in a frank way. Columbia’s dean is probably going to cop a huge amount of flak for simply stating the obvious but the question remains: do we, as a Western society, believe in free speech, or just an interest in hearing from those with whom we agree?
UPDATE: Watch the video here.
Columbia, Bollinger, Massad 2004?
The Columbia story continues along some very strange lines - academic freedom it seems is confined to only certain sections of the population - all pigs are created equal, only some are more equal than others?