Nicely Dodged

I was pretty upset when I read this article. Columbia University had issued an invitation to Mad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak. The invitation was extended by Lisa Anderson, dean of the School of International and Public Affairs. Columbia's president however was not made aware of it.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been invited to speak at Columbia this Friday, University officials confirmed Wednesday night.

Ahmadinejad, who has been criticized for promoting Islamic fundamentalist rule in Iran, is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly meeting.

University President Lee Bollinger, who learned of the invitation on Wednesday, said in a statement, "I happen to find many of President Ahmadinejad's stated beliefs to be repugnant, a view that I'm sure is widely shared within our university community."

David Stone, executive vice president of communications, said in an e-mail that he understands the invitation came from Lisa Anderson, dean of the School of International and Public Affairs, "as many such invitations to foreign leaders and government officials to speak at the university often do."

However, I checked over at LGF and Charles Johnson has the update to the story. Mad Mahmoud will not be spouting his holocaust denial or any of his other repulsive ideologies at Columbia. Because the administration couldn't arrange security fast enough, they say.

Dean of the School of International and Public Affairs Lisa Anderson invited Ahmadinejad to speak Wednesday morning, and he accepted Wednesday afternoon, Robert Garris, SIPA director of communications told Spectator.

But SIPA and University officials decided Thursday morning that it was not possible to coordinate the security precautions necessary to accommodate such a high profile guest under short notice.

I think that Bollinger got blindsided by Anderson and darn well wasn't going to jump through hoops to bring someone like Mad Mahmoud in to pollute the campus. Think about this for a second: would they have invited the head of the Ku Klux Klan to speak?

Other Links to this Post

1. The Real Ugly American.com » Blog Archive » Nicely Dodged — Thursday, 21 September , 2006 @ 6:11 pm