Colombia University President Lee C. Bollinger's pointed
introduction of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has drawn
mixed reactions, the New York Times reported on
Wednesday.
Before a speech to Columbia University on Monday, Ahmadinejad
was introduced by Bollinger as a man who exhibited "all the signs
of a petty and cruel dictator" and whose denial of Holocaust was
"either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated."
On campus and in editorials across the nation, on political
blogs and throughout academia, there was a sharp division of
opinion about Bollinger's remarks, according to the report.
Some said Bollinger's remarks were just the rebuke Ahmadinejad
deserved while others believed that they were embarrassing and
offensive.
"The tone from the host of an event was uncivil and uncalled
for. The president of the university had every right to state his
differences, (but) that was more than acceptable," said Rashid
Khalidi, a professor of Arab studies and director of the Middle
East Institute at Columbia.
But Emily Steinberger, a sophomore who is a spokeswoman for Lion
PAC, a pro-Israel group at Columbia that had vehemently opposed
Ahmadinejad's invitation, applauded Bollinger.
"President Bollinger was caustic in his criticism of
Ahmadinejad, but anything else would have been inappropriate and
troubling," she said.
Columbia's provost, Alan Brinkley, said the controversy "was ofa
magnitude we hadn't seen before."
David M. Stone, a university spokesman, said that President
Bollinger, a legal scholar whose specialty is freedom of speech and
freedom of the press, was not available to comment on Tuesday
because he had a tight schedule.
A number of Iranian-born scholars -- experts about the Middle
East who now live in the US -- said they were shocked by
Bollinger.
"If I as a faculty member had done this in front of my
president, I would been out the next day," said Ali Akbar Mahdi, a
professor of sociology at Ohio Wesleyan University. Though a critic
of Ahmadinejad, "I was taken aback," he added.
So was Hamid Zangeneh, a professor of economics at Widener
University in Pennsylvania. "Instead of behaving like a scholar, a
president, he behaved like a hooligan," he said.
But Noah Feldman, a Harvard law professor, disagreed.
"There are some issues where it is appropriate to be delicate
and careful, and to use exaggerated politeness. But there are some
issues of such grave importance that being too polite to your guest
is actually a betrayal of your beliefs. For Lee Bollinger, the
Holocaust is one. I applaud him for that," he said.
(Xinhua News Agency September 27, 2007)
