On Ahmadinnerjacket's Visit to Columbia University Yesterday

There can be only two legitimate reasons for inviting anyone to speak at a university: the first is to have honest, rational discussion and debate over world events or other issues of concern to students. The second is to have a pariah come to speak for the sole purpose of getting in his/her face. As to Ahmadinnerjacket, I think it is patently obvious that, if one reads every word he had to say yesterday and watch him while he spoke, impish, knowing smile included, that he was not engaged in honest, rational debate about the issues that face our country and Iran. He attempted to use the stage offered him to attempt to manipulate public opinion under the proffered guise of “academic discussion” (after all, he is quick to remind us, he teaches PhD level courses at a University in Iran). The manipulation is, from my vantage point, so opaque and obvious as not to leave room for serious debate about his intentions. He never answered a single question directly. His other explanations about love and kindness ring hollow in light of the evidence presented concerning human rights abuses in Iran, its role in supplying insurgents with explosive material that has killed American soldiers in Iraq, the openness of Iranian society to criticism and the existence of gays in Iran. Apparently they, according to Ahmadinnerjacket, do not even exist. So let us agree that Ahmadinnerjacket did not come with the intent to honestly and rationally discuss these and other issues.

Which leaves us with the other alternative: to allow him a place to speak, but to let him know, before he spoke that we were on to his game. And that is what Lee Bollinger did. And whether you view his actions and timing as suspect, he was correct. Because to have allowed A. to speak without contradiction or comment would have made Columbia complicit in A.’s attempt to legitimate his views. And that, in my view, would have been a worse crime than his having been perhaps a bit unwelcoming his guest to Columbia. Bollinger is to be congratulated for his words, delivery and timing. They set A.’s words in context, even if his intent was to remove context from the discussion, not to mention objective facts and historical reality.