That’s summarizing the comments you’ll find in the New York newspapers. Yay Amahdinejad, boo-sucks to Columbia U. President Bollinger. If you have been in a cave under a rock for the last week, Columbia University President (and renowned/chastened first amendment scholar) Bollinger hosted Iranian President Mahmoud Amahdinejad. Introducing Amahdinejad, Bollinger said:
“Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator… You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated….It’s well-documented that Iran was a state sponsor of terrorism….I doubt that you will have the intellectual courage to answer these questions.”
Here is the response:
In contrast to the ill mannered behavior of the American people in inviting a guest and then insulting him in public, Mr Ahmadnejad has earned my respect (and the respect of millions of others) for responding with graciousness that reflects the culture of a great people.
Lets be humble,apologize for the last 6 years and hope we can maintain the few frnds we have left…
I am glad that Bollinger gave a chance to President Ahmedinijad to show his statesmanship and tolerance and intelligence.
[Bollinger] failed miserably, which is highly disappointing, considering he is not only an academic, but also president of a good university. Then again, given the impression I have of Americans – based on their antics on the world stage – perhaps not so surprising.
From the Letters page of the New York Times:
Lee C. Bollinger’s speech before President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s showing at Columbia was another display of America’s foreign policy of late: If we don’t like your policies or your president, we insult, we bully and, just maybe, we bomb.
Lee C. Bollinger’s “introduction” of the president of Iran was outrageous. There’s a lot to be said about Mideast politics and the Iranian and United States entanglements there.
The emotional, irrational and hateful reaction of certain aspects of the American media, as well as the public, particularly in New York and at one of its esteemed academic institutions, against the visiting Iranian president is a sad reminder of the forces of intolerance in the bosom of American civil society.
The emotional, irrational and hateful reaction of certain aspects of the American media, as well as the public, particularly in New York and at one of its esteemed academic institutions, against the visiting Iranian president is a sad reminder of the forces of intolerance in the bosom of American civil society.
