Ahmadinejad laughed at
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s appearance Monday at Columbia University led all three network newscasts last night and received front-page coverage in newspapers across the nation this morning. Most media reports pan Ahmadinejad’s performance at Columbia, where the Iranian leader again seemed to cast doubt on the Holocaust and al Qaeda’s responsibility for the 9/11 attacks. The New York Times reports in a front page story that Ahmadinejad said that “the Nazi slaughter of six million Jews should not be treated as fact, but theory, and therefore open to debate and more research,” providing “some ammunition to people who said there was no point in inviting him to speak.” The AP, meanwhile, notes that when “asked why he had asked to visit the World Trade Center site — a request denied by New York authorities — Ahmadinejad said he wanted to express sympathy for the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.” But then “he appeared to question whether al-Qaida was responsible, saying more research was needed.”The Christian Science Monitor reports Ahmadinejad also “denied that Iran is involved in smuggling weapons into Iraq, as the US government has charged.” And in a piece titled “Live From New York, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Unreality Show,” Dana Milbank quotes the following Ahmadinejad statements in the Washington Post, “For hundreds of years, we’ve lived in friendship and brotherhood with the people of Iraq. … Our people are the freest people in the world. … The freest women in the world are women in Iran.”
Despite the statements noted above, the comment that has sparked the most laughter and outrage is Ahmadinejad’s assurance that there are no homosexuals in Iran. NBC Nightly News showed Ahmadinejad saying: “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country.” The CBS Evening News noted the Iranian leader “was literally laughed at” after that remark. The Wall Street Journal also reports Ahmadinejad’s response “elicited boos…and one loud burst of laughter.” Likewise, the AP says Ahmadinejad “provoked derisive laughter” with his comments.
I think that this does provide some good support for those who argued that Ahmadinejad should be allowed to speak at Columbia to show how crazy he is. Obviously being a laughing stock was not what he wanted to achieve, and this episode probably shows that we shouldn’t be afraid of letting crazy people speak, even if, or perhaps especially, if their views are odious.
I do think that many universities, like Columbia, still have some free speach issues, but I have to conclude that they made the right decision here.
Both Ahmadinejad and his opponents might have learned an important lesson from this experience.
Freedom of speech also means the freedom to respond. I am glad that Ahmadinejad spoke at Columbia. He deserved that opportunity. He also deserved in full the response that (should have) came from his audience.