Columbia University Democrats

While Ahmadinejad continues to berete the University for its disrespect towards him and what he says is disrespect for the audience for not allowing Ahmadinejad to voice his views and convince his audience on his own (because I’m sure there are lots of people on the fence about these subjects… ) More about god, and odd cheering from occasional comments made by Ahmadinejad – anyone who is aware of WHY there is cheering, we’d love to be enlightened…

Ahmadinejad is reciting platitudes about the importance of scholarly inquiry and the sciences right now. Let’s hope he says something that doesn’t sound like the first day of an overenthusiastic middle school science class soon.

While Stephen and Sarah are blogging from John Jay, Evan and I will be blogging off the lawn directly about the Columbia reaction to the comments made.. a well deserved standing ovation was given to Bollinger’s powerful challenge to Ahmadinejad… Bollinger did take Ahmadinejad to task over everything from his nuclear program to the denial of the holocaust. From shirtless frat boys to islamic women wearing the hijab cheered for a call to truth…

Bollinger is bringing up all of the international criticism surrounding Ahmadinejad and the domestic criticism he faces–hey, what a novel idea. It’s nice that the president of our university understands working with and speaking alongside other world leaders in trying to solve a rough diplomatic situation–too bad the president of our country doesn’t get it.

Ahmadinejad just came on and is going through the usual cordial welcoming statements, praise for academia, lots about God. He’s now complaining about the lack of hospitality shown by Bollinger–a bit of an understatement.

Bollinger just asked Ahmadinejad to conduct similar open debates in his own country–a very important point to drive home since our ability to uplift Iranian academia by speaking freely as they cannot is key here.

He has also just brought up the Holocaust, and asked Ahmadinejad to stop the outrage of Holocaust denial and to retract his offensive statements about the destruction of Israel. He is now bringing up the boycott of Israeli scholars, which seems a bit tangential–asking him if he wants to “wipe us off the map, too” is just going to give him an easier point to address than what he has actually said about Israel.