Was Columbia University correct in allowing Ahmadinejad to speak at its campus?

Question

give me your opinons

Answer 1

Well apparently someone wanted to hear him speak as there was a turnout. Whether or not the action was correct was largely a matter of interpretation. I support the free speech aspect involved, but I do believe personally that they were incorrect. This is a man who prides himself on being an enemy of the United States. Really he should be afforded no quarter in America unless he is visiting the United Nations. However, I am just one man and my opinion does not speak for the whole of the country. We are not at war with Iran. So while I feel it was not a correct decision, my recourse was that I did not have to attend his lecture and neither did anyone else if they didn't like it.

Answer 2

Totally correct! How else are we ever going to learn about what the despots and maniacal religious lunatics really believe in? We will never get it from our own political leaders, because they will always put their own 'polispin' on it! So lets get it straight from the wide open mouths of the raving ratbags themselves! Also, it might be wise to examine the motives of those who wish to stop the 'mads' from speaking! Why is it that they dont wont us to know what the 'Rubber room world leaders' believe in? I think its mostly because if you take a close look at the 'ban and censor' people, their all 'Happy Acres' candidates themselves! If we stand by and let these giggle factory people do what they so desperatly want to do, they will take away all our basic human rights and freedoms because they think its 'Ungodly'! I have observed the rise and rise of this in the USA, and most Americans dont even seem to know its being slowly done to them! But they will!.. I just hope its not too late when they do!

Answer 3

No by no ability! If I headed a company that denied the holocaust, endorsed the destruction of Israel, had a secret nuclear weapons software and brazenly supported terrorists and provided them palms in Iraq, Lebanon. Palestine and Afghanistan, i'm valuable i would not settle for a communicate board to espouse my perspectives at Columbia college or everywhere else, i could be arrested and thrown in penal complex. The destructive deluded, fuzzy-thinking so-referred to as "liberals" who invited Ahmadinejad to speak and gave him a communicate board interior the call of "unfastened speech" (that made information headlines all over the globe) ought to flow back to college and take a course in good judgment a hundred and one. As you are able to locate by ability of a pair of the previous posts, human beings are already confident that Ahmadinejad became "insulted" because of the fact he became referred to as a petty dictator (which he's) and sympathize with him, so he has already performed what he got down to end. And why might every person enable a sponsor of terrorism to excursion the region of the international commerce center? Who might you invite next? Osama Bin encumbered?

Answer 4

I say no, but you need to look at the University's history. In the 1930s, the chancellor was a great fan of Mussolini and the Nazis. They actually came and serenaded him as he removed all Jewish Professors. The worst of the current debacle was that the insulting introduction played like wildfire through the middle east...why? because in spite of what you might think of a guest in the Middle East, you are always polite..thus Columbia gave Iran a propaganda victory...just like most Liberals in history have done..without a clue..check out the "Peace in our time" crowd in England that hugged Hitler in public.

Answer 5

I think it is always appropriate to have conversations and communication with your adversaries. That way you actually know why you hate them and not just from hearsay. Columbia's President's mistake was to act like a pompous a$s instead of an intelligent academic. I would have expected a more dignified approach then what was given. There are many ways to skin a cat without looking like a fool and bully.

Answer 6

Yes in the sense that as the leading champion of the free world we have to set the example of allowing the expression of free speech. If we were to say no then we would be no better then those that oppose freedom of speech,religion and the basic human rights of all people. Besides anyone with any sense knows that this garbage that President Ahamadinejad spews is just that garbage.

Answer 7

Yes they were wrong. Very much so. Ahmadinejad should have been arrested the moment he stepped foot on American soil. He is striving to build a terroristic nation with nuclear weapons. That's a crime in the eyes of the world.

Answer 8

Absolutely.

He is a foreign head of state who has been noted for saying some outrageous things. There is nothing more appropriate for a University than to let its students [and the larger community] hear his words in person so they can judge him for themselves and get a chance to challenge him.

EDIT: To the guy above who asked if we could imagine Yale inviting Adolph Hitler to speak: perhaps if they had, Americans would have realized how dangerous he was and would have gotten involved in stopping him sooner than they we did.

Answer 9

Yes but they shouldn't have just blatantly attacked him. This was a chance to really hear what the guy had to say but instead they put him on the defensive right away and made it seem like just a petty attempt to embarass him.

Answer 10

Yes. Plain and simply, everyone has the right to speak as long as they are cordial and respectful. Now if he came and started spewing a bigot remarks...than he probably would have been kicked out. But everyone has the right to voice their opinion and we should be curious to hear what they have to say.