Columbia Changes Its Mind, Uninvites Ahmadinejad

Yesterday I wrote about the invitation for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak before an assembly of students and faculty at Columbia University. Today, Columbia President Lee Bollinger has rescinded the invitation.

Hat-Tip: Captain Ed Morrissey

In a statement issued yesterday afternoon, Mr. Bollinger said he canceled Mr. Ahmadinejad's invitation because he couldn't be certain it would "reflect the academic values that are the hallmark of a University event such as our World Leaders Forum." He told Ms. Anderson that Mr. Ahmadinejad could speak at the school of international and public affairs, just not as a part of the university-wide leader's forum.

Ms. Anderson's assistant cited an inability to arrange for proper security as the reason for the cancellation.

Mr. Bollinger told Ms. Anderson that while he finds Mr. Ahmadinejad's views "repugnant," she has the "right and responsibility to invite speakers whom she believes will add to the academic experience of our students."

The invitation sparked heated debate and outrage on campus and elsewhere because Mr. Ahmadinejad is a Holocaust denier and the head of a state that sponsors terrorism. The brouhaha over Mr. Ahmadenijad's invitation has also spotlighted the confusion of many regarding if and how standards should be applied when universities decide whom to welcome to their campuses.

A professor at the school of public health, Judy Jacobson, said Ms. Anderson "didn't see what line she was crossing." When asked to clarify the substance of that line, Ms. Jacobson paused. "Ahmadinejad is a Holocaust denier and inciter and I think that causes him to go far over the line," she said.

I am happy to see that the invite was lifted and theat he will not be coming to Columbia University. I can understand both sides of this coin. It could prove to be a learning experience, and one that the students not get a chance to have again. On the other hand what would Ahmadinejad offer them, in terms of an education, that they cannot already get our of reading a copy of "Mein Kampf."

Had President Bollinger not revoked the invite Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would have used the podium handed over to him to spew his anti-Semitic views, his anti-American views,a nd his stand for a caliphate across the globe. It would have been a virtual repeat of his United Nations address.

College students do not need to hear from the man personally and directly to understand what he is. He is a monster. A modern-day Hitler. And he is moving towards having nuclear weapons. That is all the up and coming generation need know because it will be their generation facing off against him. Their generation, and mine, that is.

I applaud President Bollinger for making this move. It is no a form of censorship to do this. He made a decision based on the university, and whether or not Ahmadinejad's presence there would serve a purpose. In the end, he decided that it would not.

Marcie