What is it about maniacal, fascist dictators that makes them so irresistible to leftist academics? Are they envious of the raw power these thugs wield?
Columbia University’s invitation (Ahmadinejad to Speak on Campus) to Iran’s Ahmadinejad to speak at its World Leaders Forum is simply the latest in a long line of elite, progressive universities’ ties to oppressive dictators. In the 1930’s, both Columbia (No Excuse for Columbia’s Nazi Links ) and Harvard (Harvard’s Nazi Ties) welcomed Nazi officials on their campuses and participated in exchanges with Nazi universities. Since Ahmadinejad and the Islamo-fascists are the heirs of Hitler, it is not surprising that they are so popular with progressive academia.
The progressives invoked the principle of free speech to justify their fondness for tyrants. Columbia’s president said,
“It is a critical premise of freedom of speech that we do not honor the dishonorable when we open the public forum to their voices”
Too bad that Columbia’s devotion to free speech does not apply to Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist’s right to speak. (Columbia Student Union Nixes Speaker )
In regards to Ahmadinejad’s invitation, John Coatsworth, interim dean of the School of International and Public Affairs said,
“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”.
Hey John, I hear Donald Rumsfeld is available.
