Scott Allan’s World

This was a very odd day. First of all Columbia invited a deranged terrorist leader to speak at their campus but does not allow the ROTC on campus. Let me put it a different way. The very military that keeps us safe and Ahmadinejad is helping to kill in Iraq is not welcome on campus. How absurd is that?

The students recently ran the Minuteman organization off campus but gave Ahmadinejad a standing ovations. It’s not clear to me what they were cheering for. Even the most radical students can’t possibly embrace any of this maniac’s values. Many of the students at Columbia are Jewish and almost all are American. Both these groups Ahmadinejad has wanted to wipe off the face of the earth. I bet the students were quite surprised to find out that along with the Holocaust not happening, there are also no gays in Iran at all. I wonder how many were cheering then. They must simply cheer anything anti-American regardless of the message.

The highlight of the day was when the President of Columbia U., Lee Bollinger, gave a warm introduction to President of Iran:

Let’s, then, be clear at the beginning, Mr. President you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator.
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In a December 2005 state television broadcast, you described the Holocaust as a “fabricated” “legend.” One year later, you held a two-day conference of Holocaust deniers.

For the illiterate and ignorant, this is dangerous propaganda. When you come to a place like this, this makes you, quite simply, ridiculous. You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated.

You should know that Columbia is a world center of Jewish studies and now, in partnership with the YIVO Institute, of Holocaust studies.
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Let me close with this comment. Frankly, and in all candor, Mr. President, I doubt that you will have the intellectual courage to answer these questions. But your avoiding them will in itself be meaningful to us.
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I am only a professor, who is also a university president, and today I feel all the weight of the modern civilized world yearning to express the revulsion at what you stand for. I only wish I could do better.

Full text of speech here.

I was pleased to hear President Bollinger say what we were all thinking but it seemed odd that he would be so rude to his “honored guest”. He was not a very gracious host indeed. I hope he was embarrassed by his Ivy League students’ ovations since they clearly demonstrated a lack of intelligence.