Here Comes The President...To Columbia University Tomorrow

The big day is upon us.

This event has gotten the kind of public fanfare, media coverage, sidewalk chatter, waiting line gossip, and impassioned outrage one would expect of a celebrity wedding.

I am of course talking about Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov and Bingu wa Mutharika's highly anticipated speeches at Columbia University tomorrow.

Actually, even though the Presidents of Turkmenistan and The Republic of Malawi will be gracing the lecture halls of one of the nation's most presitigious institutions of higher learning, media blitz is likely to be focused on another President with a name Americans will have trouble pronouncing: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of the Islamic State of Iran.

Despite the news vans, cadre of national and international reporters, protesters expected to hit the streets and cobble-stoned walking paths of Morningside Heights tomorrow, you can expect one person not to step foot on 114th and Broadway, the Mayor of City of New York. "New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg," according to a Reuters story carried by Haartz, " said Friday that the city's Columbia University was free to invite Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak, but "personally, I wouldn't go to listen to him - I don't care about what he says."

But public expressions of anti-Ahmadinejad-ness (the funniest dash-created word in the English language to say. Go ahead-try it!) are not confined to the realm of politics.

The headline on the front cover of the New York daily newspaper publication The Daily News lividly threatened Mr. Ahmadinejad, "If you even think of setting one foot in Ground Zero, you can...Go To Hell," and going as far to assert that "All of Manhattan south of Canal St. must be forbidden to him by the NYPD."


I love the reckless conflation that seeks to confound any of the necessary distinctions between Al Qaeda hijackers and the state of Iran. Are they really going to try to relate the two?

Then again, the majority of Americans still seemed to believe the specious connection between the B'ath-run secular state of Iraq and Afghanistan-based, American-trained, Saudi Muslims.

Surprisingly, Columbia stands resolute against public pressure and harassment to cancel the event. In a twist of irony, the Ivy League, embroiled in a Khaleeji summer hot debate over Barnard faculty member Nadia Abu El-Hajj's tenure bid, one under rigorous contestion for the scholar's writing of a book critical of Israel's archeological to exist, defended it's decision to allow the President of Iran to speak citing the school's commitment to promoting "free speech."

SIPA's (Columbia University's graduate School of International and Public Affairs) Dean, , the ones responsible for sponsoring the sold-out event.

The mission of the University is to educate citizens, train professionals, and foster research of the highest quality. This mission can only be served by providing students and faculty with untrammeled access to a diversity of views and opinions in an environment where every statement can be challenged
and debated freely.

The following is a statement posted on Columbia's webiste explaining the reason for endorsing the SIPA-sponsored event:

Statement Regarding Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Talk at Columbia University’s World Leaders Forum

On Monday, September 24th, 2007 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will speak and participate in a question and answer session with university faculty and students at Columbia University’s World Leaders Forum. His appearance is sponsored by Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, which is initiating a year-long series of lectures and events on thirty years of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The SIPA lecture series will include academic experts as well as former officials and critics of the Islamic Republic.

This opportunity for faculty and students to engage the President of Iran came about after Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee at the Iranian Mission to the United Nations initiated contact with Columbia through a member of the faculty, Richard Bulliet, who is a specialist on Iran. The event will be open only to university students, faculty and staff with Columbia University identification and invited guests.

President Bollinger emphasized that such World Leaders Forum events must allow ample time for students and faculty to pose questions that challenge the views expressed by the speakers. John H. Coatsworth, Dean of the School of International and Public Affairs, confirmed that the Iranian president had agreed to this format. Dean Coatsworth will moderate the question and answer period following Ahmadinejad’s speech.

President Bollinger will introduce the event by challenging President Ahmadinejad on a number of his controversial statements and his government’s policies, including his denial of the Holocaust and his call for the destruction of the State of Israel. The US government has accused Ahmadinejad’s government of supporting terrorism and developing nuclear weapons capacity. Human rights groups have charged Iran with suppressing dissent and women’s rights. Columbia students and faculty will themselves
have an opportunity to question Iran’s leader on these and other issues.

Dean Coatsworth stated that “Opportunities to hear, challenge, and learn from controversial speakers of different views are central to the education and training of students for citizenship in a shrinking and still dangerous world. This is especially true for SIPA students, many of whose careers will require them to confront human rights and security issues throughout the globe.”

Look for photos of protestors, and if I'm lucky, of the blushing President to hit KABOBfest before US Weekly or Star Magazine get a chance to send the digitals to their printers!

[Tarboush Tip: Nadeem]