President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, facing a hostile reception at Columbia University this afternoon, said that Palestinians were suffering because of the Holocaust, proclaimed that there are no homosexuals in his country and said he wanted to visit the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan during his trip to New York “to show my respect.”
In accepting an invitation to speak at Columbia while in New York for a meeting of the United Nations, Mr. Ahmadinejad subjected himself to protests from scores of students, faculty and others, and to a harsh critique from even the university’s president, Lee C. Bollinger.
In introductory remarks that ran more than 10 minutes, Mr. Bollinger defended the university’s right to invite Mr. Ahmadinejad to speak but moments later accused the Iranian leader of behaving like “a petty and cruel dictator.”
Earlier today, the university had been the scene of growing protests from hundreds of students and others who did not believe Columbia should have extended Mr. Ahmadinejad a platform. The lawn on campus was crowded with students and others who could not get into the forum, who watched him from a live telecast that had been set up by university officials.
Mr. Bollinger set the tone for what became a tense exchange between the Iranian leader and his hosts, who did not let him stray too far afield when he delivered a rambling speech by insisting that he stick to a time limit and putting direct questions to him about his country’s policies.
Throughout it all, Mr. Ahmadinjad tried to maintain a smile on his face, even when he began his remarks by complaining about his treatment at the hands of his hosts, saying that guests would not be treated in such a manner in Iran.
He described some of Mr. Bollinger’s remarks as an “insult” and “incorrect, regretfully.”
“In Iran, tradition requires that when we invite a person to be a speaker,” he said through a translator, “we actually respect our students and the professors by allowing them to make their own judgment and we don’t think it’s necessary before the speech is even given to come in with a series of claims and to attempt to provide a vaccination of sorts to our faculty and students.”
Mr. Ahmadinejad then meandered from science and religion, to the creation of human beings and the misuse of wisdom. But it was during the question-and-answer session that he was confronted about some of his most controversial positions.
He said that as an academic he questioned whether there was “sufficient research” about what happened after World War II, referring to the Holocaust. “We know quite well that Palestine is an old wound” for 60 years, he said at one point.
“We need to still question whether the Palestinian people should be paying for it or not.”
He was asked to answer directly whether he or his government seeks the destruction of Israel. He did not. But to solve the “60-year-old problem,” he said, “we must allow the Palestinian people to decide on its future itself.”
Someone from the audience asked Mr. Ahmadinejad if he was calling for the destruction of the State of Israel.
The Iranian president did not provide a yes or no answer, but spoke instead about the issue of Palestininian self-determination: “We love all nations. We love the Jewish people. There are many Jews living in Iran, with peace and security.”
When John H. Coatsworth, the acting dean of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, challenged Mr. Ahmadinejad to give a yes or no answer, the president responded:
“ Where’s the free expression in that?” he asked.
He called for a “free referendum” in Palestine. “Let the people of Palestine freely chose what they want for their future,”
In answer to criticism Mr. Bollinger had made about Iran’s treatment of women and gays, Mr. Ahmadinejad had much to say.
“In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country. We don’t have that in our country,” he said to boos and hisses and even some laughter from the audience.
“In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon,” Mr. Ahmadinejad continued, undeterred. “I do not know who has told you that we have it. But as for women, maybe you think that maybe being a woman is a crime.
“It’s not a crime to be a woman. Women are the best creatures created by God. They represent the kindness, the beauty that God instills in them. Women are respected in Iran.”
Mr. Ahmadinejad also said he hoped to visit the site of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, although police had forbidden him to do so. Mr. Ahmadinejad said he wanted to “show my respect.”
He added: “Regretfully, some groups had very strong reactions, very bad reactions. It’s bad to prevent someone from showing sympathy to the families of the victims of the 9/11 event, a tragic event.”
Mr. Ahmadinejad has been trying to cast a positive light on his policies during his visit to a country where they have been criticized. Iran has been accused by the Bush administration of arming Shiite militias in Iraq as well as developing a nuclear weapons program, charges that the Iranian government denies.
Earlier today, he spoke at the National Press Club at midday in Washington via videolink from New York.
At the National Press Club event, Mr. Ahmadinejad said that Iran sought only peace and security for Iraq; he appeared to deny that Iran was providing weapons for Iraqi insurgents, and he said any talk of war with the United States was “a propaganda tool” by the West.
But Mr. Ahmadinejad, in his first real dialogue with the Washington press corps, expressed no great admiration for the United States. “We oppose the way the U.S. government tries to manage the world,” he said. “We believe it’s wrong; we believe it leads to war, discrimination and bloodshed.”
And he defended or repeated his earlier comments about the Holocaust, saying Iran could not recognize Israel “because it is based on ethnic discrimination, occupation and usurpation, and it consistently threatens its neighbors.”
At Columbia Mr. Ahmadinejad was asked to participate in the World Leader’s Forum. He is also scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.
This morning, protesters, including students bused in from other schools, gathered at the university grounds ahead of the speech. Student groups and individuals started covering the campus with fliers. Columbia security guards closed off the grounds to anyone without a campus identification card, and the police set up barriers outside of campus.
“The events in Iran are disturbing,” said Lauren Steinberg, a political science major who was hanging up signs. “We don’t want to turn a blind eye to them. I personally don’t think he should have been invited to campus, but now that he’s here, I see it as an important opportunity for free speech and for us to denounce his views.”
“With the amount of people we will have, we will most likely stretch down a couple of blocks,” said Dani Klein, the campus director for StandWithUs, one of the sponsors of the protests.
“We felt that this went above and beyond the issues of free speech,” Mr. Klein said, adding that his objections included the lack of human rights in Iran and the fact that the university had given Mr. Ahmadinejad a platform. “You can criticize his views without honoring him the way they are.”
Other protests against the Iranian president were expected in the streets outside the United Nations in New York.
“We have today an extraordinary opportunity to directly engage” Mr. Ahmadinejad, said John Coatsworth, a dean at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, in an atmosphere of “civility and restraint,” the audience was told. Mr. Ahmadinejad arrived in the United States on Sunday and addressed people invited by the Iranian mission in a closed event at the New York Hilton.
The university was a scene of divergent views today: A group of Iranian-Americans taped a large Iranian flag in the middle of campus and taped up printed and hand-written fliers focusing on positive aspects of the Iranian government.
“There are Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian representatives in Iran’s Parliament,” said a pink hand-written sign that was hanging on the side of Lerner Hall, where Mr. Ahmadinejad will be speaking.
“We want to show some of the positive things about Iran because we think there are a lot of the pictures in the past days that just create hatred and bigotry,” said Maryam Jazini, 23, who graduated from Columbia last year.
Another unsigned flier read: “Bollinger, too bad Bin Laden is not available. You could have presented him with some tough questions too.”
Mr. Ahmadinejad is allowed under international law and diplomatic protocols to travel freely within a 25-mile radius of Columbus Circle. But the police said last week that Mr. Ahmadinejad would not be allowed anywhere near Ground Zero during his trip.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/world/worldspecial/24cnd-iran.html?hp=&pagewanted=print
JPTF 24/09/2007
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