I am sure I am not alone in feeling offense and even some degree of outrage at the reaction of the United States Senate and members of the New York State Assembly to Columbia University’s invitation of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak on campus. His little jaunt around the Big Apple has been quite the refreshing breath of fresh air, yet in my naïveté I expected far more intelligent criticism of his presence and posturing than what has turned out to be a brash and ill-mannered clamor by state and federal leaders...clearly, I am the one who with something to learn.
Iran/Persia has a rich past with an equally colorful string of leaders. From Alexander the Great to the Palhavi “dynasty” to our new boy Mahmoud today, Iran is country that never fails to produce leaders that are fascinating to discuss and even more fascinating to observe. Having lived in the Middle East, studied its history and even published extensively on topics germane to the region, I have long been aware of the painful reality that America (as a nation) lacks the most basic understanding of the history of Middle Eastern and Indo-European cultures, much less a grasp of its current events. Second hand news defines mass opinion of the area and its people for us. Where visits from leaders in the region are rare, the opportunity to hear first hand from such a leader ought to be valued over rantings from the hooligans at Fox News.
It should have been assumed that Mahmoud would not be pandering to American policies during his visit State-side, nor would he be praising those “social values” that are attributed to the United States. However, for a nation that strides across God’s green earth waving its title of liberty and pushing principles such as freedom of expression upon other states with militaristic fervor, the combative stance of many of our leaders to Ahmadinejad’s soap-boxing is curiously hypocritical. In one breath, Senator Mitch McConnell characterized Columbia as a bastion of open dialogue and exchange of ideas, and in another denounced Columbia’s invitation of a ruthless dictator to speak in its lecture halls. Columbia’s President opened the proceedings with some very staunch accusations against the Iranian regime, then let Mahmoud put on his dog and pony show and even field questions from the audience. Where, I ask myself, is the harm in this?
If nothing else, Columbia’s invitation furthers the academy’s long standing reputation for fostering a free discourse on even the most controversial of political subject matter. Or is the ecstatic flow of discourse in our American marketplace of ideas now limited to those ideas that receive the rubber stamp of legitimacy from the powers that be? I am no fan of Ahmadinejad’s, but Columbia University’s invitation to him is a boon to the sort of discourse that should be taking place in a time where being forced to confront (with some modicum of intelligence) those who think and act differently should not be discouraged. In an social and political climate where free exchange of ideas is given lip-service rather than substantive indulgence, Columbia has stepped up to the plate and handed the floor to a man who will be a presence in the international community that we must learn to live with whether we like it or not. We have failed to listen (truly listen) to the Middle East for decades. Iran is a country with a nuclear program, fostering a religious demographic that toppled a regime far greater in number than itself back in 1979, and remains a force that will not bow in deference to American foreign policy. Now that one of its leaders is in our midst for a time, why not pay attention? Love him or hate him, Mahmoud and his country are not going away anytime soon.
To make matters even more unsavory, State Assemblyman Dov Hikind called upon New Yorkers to make Ahmadinejad’s visit to the United States as miserable as possible. While presumably Adhmadinejad’s bizarre opinions on the Holocaust (or lack thereof, in his view) offended Assemblyman Hikind’s identity and heritage, for an elected leader such as he to advocate such hostility is offensive. I will be the first to admit that regardless of how one labels it, six and a half million Jews went to their deaths during World War II in a gut-wrenching and very sad chapter in our human history. Nonetheless, Assemblyman Hikind’s rabble-rousing is a direct affront to those basic ideals that allow him to stand on a street corner and urge such discord and, by implication, endorses those same awful policies of intolerance that led to the mass slaughter of so many innocent people.
Sure, Ahmadinejad’s worldview is controvercial on many levels and offensive on others, but one cannot help but admire the gall of a world leader who dares to step into several of the most legitimate and well-respected forums in the Western world and call “bullshit” on those policies of the United States that (shock horror) may very well be appropriately denounced as such.
I apologize to those of you who read this if I am sounding too impassioned or even fanatical. On some level, I still expect our leaders to advocate values that are a cut above the mob mentality that has come to define how we, as a collective, expound upon matters relevant to the world we live in...and there was a world beyond our borders last time I checked...
Iran/Persia has a rich past with an equally colorful string of leaders. From Alexander the Great to the Palhavi “dynasty” to our new boy Mahmoud today, Iran is country that never fails to produce leaders that are fascinating to discuss and even more fascinating to observe. Having lived in the Middle East, studied its history and even published extensively on topics germane to the region, I have long been aware of the painful reality that America (as a nation) lacks the most basic understanding of the history of Middle Eastern and Indo-European cultures, much less a grasp of its current events. Second hand news defines mass opinion of the area and its people for us. Where visits from leaders in the region are rare, the opportunity to hear first hand from such a leader ought to be valued over rantings from the hooligans at Fox News.
It should have been assumed that Mahmoud would not be pandering to American policies during his visit State-side, nor would he be praising those “social values” that are attributed to the United States. However, for a nation that strides across God’s green earth waving its title of liberty and pushing principles such as freedom of expression upon other states with militaristic fervor, the combative stance of many of our leaders to Ahmadinejad’s soap-boxing is curiously hypocritical. In one breath, Senator Mitch McConnell characterized Columbia as a bastion of open dialogue and exchange of ideas, and in another denounced Columbia’s invitation of a ruthless dictator to speak in its lecture halls. Columbia’s President opened the proceedings with some very staunch accusations against the Iranian regime, then let Mahmoud put on his dog and pony show and even field questions from the audience. Where, I ask myself, is the harm in this?
If nothing else, Columbia’s invitation furthers the academy’s long standing reputation for fostering a free discourse on even the most controversial of political subject matter. Or is the ecstatic flow of discourse in our American marketplace of ideas now limited to those ideas that receive the rubber stamp of legitimacy from the powers that be? I am no fan of Ahmadinejad’s, but Columbia University’s invitation to him is a boon to the sort of discourse that should be taking place in a time where being forced to confront (with some modicum of intelligence) those who think and act differently should not be discouraged. In an social and political climate where free exchange of ideas is given lip-service rather than substantive indulgence, Columbia has stepped up to the plate and handed the floor to a man who will be a presence in the international community that we must learn to live with whether we like it or not. We have failed to listen (truly listen) to the Middle East for decades. Iran is a country with a nuclear program, fostering a religious demographic that toppled a regime far greater in number than itself back in 1979, and remains a force that will not bow in deference to American foreign policy. Now that one of its leaders is in our midst for a time, why not pay attention? Love him or hate him, Mahmoud and his country are not going away anytime soon.
To make matters even more unsavory, State Assemblyman Dov Hikind called upon New Yorkers to make Ahmadinejad’s visit to the United States as miserable as possible. While presumably Adhmadinejad’s bizarre opinions on the Holocaust (or lack thereof, in his view) offended Assemblyman Hikind’s identity and heritage, for an elected leader such as he to advocate such hostility is offensive. I will be the first to admit that regardless of how one labels it, six and a half million Jews went to their deaths during World War II in a gut-wrenching and very sad chapter in our human history. Nonetheless, Assemblyman Hikind’s rabble-rousing is a direct affront to those basic ideals that allow him to stand on a street corner and urge such discord and, by implication, endorses those same awful policies of intolerance that led to the mass slaughter of so many innocent people.
Sure, Ahmadinejad’s worldview is controvercial on many levels and offensive on others, but one cannot help but admire the gall of a world leader who dares to step into several of the most legitimate and well-respected forums in the Western world and call “bullshit” on those policies of the United States that (shock horror) may very well be appropriately denounced as such.
I apologize to those of you who read this if I am sounding too impassioned or even fanatical. On some level, I still expect our leaders to advocate values that are a cut above the mob mentality that has come to define how we, as a collective, expound upon matters relevant to the world we live in...and there was a world beyond our borders last time I checked...
1 comment:
"I still expect our leaders to advocate values that are a cut above the mob mentality"
I strongly believe that most of us do agree with the above!
Refreshing and well done!
omr
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