A clip of Columbia University dean John H. Coatsworth defending the institution's decision to invite Iran's president, adding that Columbia would have invited Hitler had they the opportunity.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's scheduled visit to Columbia University on Monday has caused outrage among New York City officials and Jewish groups, according to press reports. His visit to the university will follow a speech at the UN General Assembly.
Columbia's president, Lee Bollinger, defends his decision to invite Ahmadinejad, who as repeatedly called for Israel's destruction and is developing a nuclear program against the will of the international community.
"Columbia, as a community dedicated to learning and scholarship, is committed to confronting ideas--to understand the world as it is and as it might be. To fulfill this mission we must respect and defend the rights of our schools, our deans and our faculty to create programming for academic purposes," Bollinger explained in a statement, according to Ynet.
"Necessarily, on occasion this will bring us into contact with beliefs many, most or even all of us will find offensive and even odious. We trust our community, including our students, to be fully capable of dealing with these occasions, through the powers of dialogue and reason," he continued.
City politicians and Jewish groups have led opposition to Ahmadinejad's visit. New York City council speaker Christine Quinn has spearheaded much of the resistance against Columbia University to withdraw its invitation to the Iranian leader.
"Ahmadinejad is a Holocaust denier, here for one reason -- to spread his hate-mongering vitriol on the world stage," she said, according to the AFP.
Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, echoed opposition to the visit.
"There has to be some standard about who we give credibility to, who we give access to such a prestigious platform as Columbia University," the Associated Press quoted Hoenlein as saying. "What is the message that is sent to the students in his country that have suffered under him?"
"This is not a man who ought to be hosted in civilized society," he added.
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.