Ahmadinejad to Speak on Campus (Columbia University)
Columbia Spectator
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, has accepted an invitation to speak at Columbia from School of International and Public Affairs interim dean John Coatsworth, according to a spokesman.
The event is scheduled to take place on Monday, September 24–the same day that Ahmadinejad is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly–as part of the World Leaders Forum and will be sponsored by SIPA.
“Necessarily, on occasion this will bring us into contact with beliefs many, most, or even all of us will find offensive and even odious,” University President Lee Bollinger said in a statement. “We trust our community, including our students, to be fully capable of dealing with these occasions, through the powers of dialogue and reason.”
“Opportunities to hear, challenge, and learn from controversial speakers of different views are central to the education and training of students for citizenship in a shrinking and still dangerous world. This is especially true for SIPA students, many of whose careers will require them to confront human rights and security issues throughout the globe,” Coatsworth said in a statement.
Registration for the event was closed down less than an hour and a half. A university spokesman said that 600 people could fit in the event.
Almost exactly one year ago, then-Dean of SIPA Lisa Anderson invited Ahmadinejad to speak on campus during the week of the World Leaders Forum on behalf of the School. Bollinger, upon learning of the event, chose not to lend it the sponsorship of the University as a whole. One day after news of the invitation broke, Anderson rescinded it, but not before many students and alumni spoke out both in favor and against the event.
Several student leaders received invitations today to speak tomorrow with University President Lee Bollinger regarding the event. Many leaders, including the heads of class councils, several club funding boards, and a number of clubs went into a discussion last soon after hearing the news of the invitation to form a statement.
“I think that first and foremost any dialogue is positive, so even though I may not agree with what Ahmadinejad says, I think any dialogue between him … and the U.S. is a positive step,” Iranian-American Sheena Shirakhon, CC ’08 and a member of Students against MIlitary Intervention in Iran, said of the invitation. “Mostly, that’s the result of my belief that war in Iran … would be horribly detrimental to the Iranain people, whether you support Ahmadinejad or not.”
Wild Thing’s comment………
WTH is happening with this country??!!
Could you folks at Columbia University ask Ahmadinejad a question for me? When does he plan nuking Columbia University ???
I can’t believe this. Columbia is a PUBLIC university? Spending OUR tax dollars to venue a man killing US troops?
Am I hallucinating???? Damn you Columbia students! This is war, we are at war with Islam and this country of mine had better start to WAKE UP! I have had it with traitors to our country, traitors to our troops, and these jerks think it is OK to do this kind of crap. It is NOT!
Amanda Murphy
Alumni Relations Director
am2629@columbia.edu
954-240-4865
Julia Feldberg
Alumni Relations Associate
Speaker Series Contact
jef2121@columbia.edu
Kristen Kramer
Alumni Relations Associate
kek2121@columbia.edu
Emily Lampert
Alumni Relations Junior Associate
ebl2108@columbia.edu
DEAN OF THE COLLEGE
212-678-3050 TC* 3050
HEIL Columbia the gem of islamofascism? Too bad Columbia couldn’t invite Chavez from Venezuela and Kim Jong ‘Mentally’ Il from North Korea as well. And a few blocks away is 16-square acres where 1,000 slaughtered Americans perished on 9-11-01 in the North & South Towers, and on
~AA11~ and ~UF175~ & 1,000 that have yet to be found or identified… This Iraniac boasts of wiping God’s chosen people off the face of the earth, and denies the Holocaust even existed?
He’ll donate $$$ to Clinton’s campaign no doubt.
Columbia is one of the most liberal thinking colleges there is. (if you recall, the movie, The Day After Tomorrow-Jake G’s character was a student at Columbia.)
I would not want my children going there–there is no place for a conservative voice there.
I would NOT want to listen to Peewee. He’s a monster with a black heart. And anyone who listens to him is a traitor. He should be shunned, but these dipsticks would rather agree with him than agree with our position of “Stay the Course.”
Peewee wants the world and he’ll kill every last one of us to get it. He’s a spoiled brat who doesn’t want to share his toys.
PS: Columbia University: 2,996 Americans and foreigners (120) died on 9-11-01 in NYC, Pentagon and Shanksville PA… 1,000 have yet to be found or identified because they were incinerated and pulverised! And I thought Cal Berkeley was a disgraceful academic environment.
I’ve written Secretary of State Rice, asking her not to issue a visa the slimebag. It’s still not too late to do so. Here’s the direct link for the on-line email messaging page of the US State Department. Please make your opinion heard.
Gregor
http://contact-us.state.gov/cgi-bin/state.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php
Columbia University is the same place where they violently interrupted a speech by the Minuteman Project founder last year.
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/Columbia_Gilchrist_speech/2007/09/19/33958.html
It’s one thing to allow that stinking slime ball to visit the UN but to allow him to roam America is another. The worse thing is, us taxpayers are going to have to foot the bill for his security. Were going to protect the man who’s killing our troops in Iraq and calls for the destruction of our nation…that pisses me off
Where the hell is the President in all of this he is, afterall, our leader, He is the one who visited ‘Ground-Zero’ and proclaimed for all the world to hear, ” I will not forget “.
He should be the first one out there demying this piece of garbage a visa (Period).
Where are the Republican Candidates, the Republican Congressmen and Senators, saying this is an outrage, this should not be allowed to happen.
Hell if Ahmadeinjad isn’t careful he will be granted legal status, by our congress. And Bush will sign it.
This is the worst insult in a long time, and OUR leaders are speechless.
Wild Thing –
Columbia isn’t a public university.
And as for the next commenter…
I believe we invaded Iraq and Afghanistan already because of 9/11. That’s working out well isn’t it? Next up Iran and Saudi Arabia (maybe Pakistan and North Korea) and then all our problems are solved. Is that the reasoning? Its a shame things are never as simple as they seem.
Personally I think I can listen to someone then form my own opinion based on the facts. But then my mother alwasy told me how smart I was. Maybe she was right.
Mark – that’s the problem, he is not a leader!
PB, actually we defeated the armed forces of Iraq. What were now fighting in Iraq and Afganastain are those who attacked us on 9/11. You claim to be pretty smart so I would guess you realize they’re not a normal enemy. They don’t engage us in battle, rather they stand on the street, daily, waving and smiling to the soldiers as they pass by. Then, one day, while they’re waving they press a button and everything around them, including them, blows up. You’re a smart guy, how would you fight that? I bet I know, you would talk and reason with them. Just one thing, don’t turn your back on them.
Terrorism doesn’t need an army. All that’s required is a body willing to die and innocent people to kill. Nineteen (19) terrorists with box cutters killed over 3,000 people and brought our nation to a standstill on 9/11.
the Iranian President’s denial of the Holocaust;
* his public call for the destruction of the state of Israel;
* his reported support for international terrorism that targets innocent civilians and American troops;
* Iran’s pursuit of nuclear ambitions in opposition to international sanction;
* his government’s widely documented suppression of civil society and particularly of women’s rights; and
* his government’s imprisoning of journalists and scholars, including one of Columbia’s own alumni, Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh.”
Are you a Halocaust denier too, PB, a Nazi like your hero Ahmaweeniejob.
Secondly, PB stated he would like to listen to make up his own mind. What is there to make up, unless PB is a Nazi…
Your mother thought you were smart ? … did you ever have her Bullshitted.
Columbia is a big liberal institution and comes up often in David Horowitz’s book on the Leftists professors, indoctrinating the youth.
PB would have invited Adolf Hitler to Auschwitz DURING World War II I suppose. PB thinks Columbia IS the UN and US State Department too I suppose. PB thinks he is our Secretary of State too I suppose. PB thinks nothing that this Iraniac whack job’s country is responsible for American servicemen KIA’s and casualties in our war on terror. PB is a socialist elite scumbag that makes me feel proud that our son is attending a university in a southern RED STATE. appy US Constitution Day as well!
Darth,yes and about Hillary, he could fit right in her shopping cart. Gosh he so awful.
Lynn oh yesss I had forgotten about that movie, thanks.
Gregor, thank you so much for the link. I will write her too.
Bob thanks for the link, your right, they sure did. They let the world know then and now again how awful they are.
Mark, it is beyond the pale that Bush is letting this happen. I saw in one of the articles that the only thing Bush said was….”I understand they don’t like it…”……THEY????? Couldn’t he say HE did not like it and HE was going to put his foot down to this terrorist?
pb ……
“Personally I think I can listen to someone then form my own opinion based on the facts. But then my mother alwasy told me how smart I was. Maybe she was right.”……
Ah I hate to tell you but no one is stopping you from forming your own opinion. As far as opinion about Ahmadinejad he is a known terrorist and that is a fact not an opinion.
Oh and pb here is another fact for you. Real men and women are making it possible for you to be safe today, and no college student or teacher can do that for you. They never have and never will. You should be thanking God for the men and women that serve our country in the military.
Mark, AWESOME, thank you so much.
Darth, thank you so much!
I faxed the President of Columbia today. Called him a traitor and told him to get fucked. He’s another who needs a .50 between the eyes
Any Columbia University student who applauded this monster should be exiled for treason. Those fools gave that prick exactly what he wanted, footage showing US support for him. They may as well have shot our soldiers right in the back, literally.
Mike you are so right!!! Thanks for saying that!!