As I'm sure everyone is aware of, the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rapped up his trip to America yesterday. It was a peaceful trip, full of sight seeing and picture taking. Well, actually, it was a trip filled with heated debate and controversy (not to say that pres. Ahmadinejad didn't snap a few pictures while he was here). For starters, President MA (has he will from no on be referred to) wanted to make it a point of his trip to visit Ground Zero, as if nobody here would take issue with that. After being denied this harmless request (HA!), he proceed to Colombia University to give an enilightened speech on topics ranging from women's rights, the holocaust, and the myth of homosexuality.
“In Iran, we don't have homosexuals, like in your country. We don't have that in our country. In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon. I don't know who's told you that we have it.”
"Given this historical event [Holocaust], if it is a reality, we need to still question whether the Palestinian people should be paying for it or not. After all, it happened in Europe. The Palestinian people had no role to play in it."
I submit to you all that this man is a product of his surroundings, just as we all are. By no means am I supporting the man, I just acknowledge that he truly believes this nonsense and he should have the forum to speak just as we all do. His problem is that he is not in Iran. He is not even in other sympathetic Middle East regions. He is in the liberal East. While he automatically assumes the right of free speech when he arrived on our shore, he must be aware that his ideas and beliefs must be backed by facts, not strong diction or a powerful tone. That doesn't (usually) fly here in America.
He is approaching his backwards and immoral personal stances and beliefs from what he calls an 'academic' perspective. He is taking radical views and veiling them as academia. I personally believe that it was a mistake for Columbia to host him, especially after hearing his introduction by Columbia President Lee Bollinger where he reffered to Pres. MA as a "petty and cruel dictator"
He goes on to confront Pres. MA even further by saying "Mr. President. I doubt that you will have the intellectual courage to answer these questions." Bollinger hit is right on the head...
Welcome to America Mahmoud, enjoy yourself and have a good time, but expect ZERO respect!
1 comment:
You beat me to my blog about this! But since you wrote a topic that is worth discussing I'll be sure to throw in my two cents.
The first point that I would like to address is the hospitality toward Iranian president, Ahmadinejad Mahmoud. Columbia University (CU) President Bollinger made extremely bold, yet rude comments to the guest he invited to his University. While the accusations that he made toward Mahmoud are up for debate, they were still offensive and uncalled for. I would understand if the CU president made these comments as follow up to Mahmoud responses, but instead he started off on the wrong foot.
By insulting a foreign leader in such a public fashion presents the notion that the United States can’t accept unpopular points of view. While numerous individuals do not agree with his views and actions, it’s inappropriate to start a “discussion” in such a negative manner. This offends the speaker and damages the reputation of the University and more importantly the image of the United States as a free and democratic nation. I’m not saying that the president needed to give him a bouquet of flowers, but introducing him in the manner in which he did was wrong. Remember, Columbia University requested that Ahmadinejad Mahmoud speak on their campus.
I also wanted to kick-off the discussion of Iranian homosexuality – or the “non-existence of homosexuality” according to Ahmadinejad Mahmoud. I’m sure you have all seen a clip similar to this one but I felt that it deserved a re-cap.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2007/09/25/todd.iran.homosexuality.cnn
I caught myself chuckling at his statement in the video. Aside from the giggles, I was extremely surprised the degree of confidence Mahmoud had of such a “phenomenon.” He was so certain that homosexuality did not exist in his country, and reiterated himself as Columbia University students laughed and booed. After all – homosexual activity is illegal in Iran and engaging in such behavior has lead to countless executions, no wonder homosexuality doesn’t “exist.”
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