Ahmadinejad to address Univ students

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been denied entry to Ground Zero but he will be speaking to some of the brightest minds in America when he addresses students at the prestigious Columbia University on Monday.

But on the campus not all students are happy with the visit like Aviva Robbin and her friends.

They are part of nearly 100 students who have used Facebook, a social networking website, to garner support for an on-campus protest while the speech in underway.

''While we do value academic debate and freedom of speech we do not feel that it would be a violation of these values not to have the President of Iran on our campus. He is a known state sponsor of terrorism and he has many human rights violations on his record and by having him here it seems as if Columbia is legitimising what he has to say and endorsing his views in the public opinion,'' said Aviva Robin.

Nuclear concerns

Columbia President President Lee Bollinger has justified the invitation saying the university is a place of learning. In a statement Bollinger said, ''Columbia, as a community dedicated to learning and scholarship, is committed to confronting ideas''.

According to the University, a Q&A session with Ahmadinejad will address concerns about Iran's nuclear weapons capabilities and challenge Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust and his calls for the destruction of Israel.

The President of Iran, which the US government calls a state sponsor of terror, was also scheduled to speak at Columbia last year but the university dropped the plan citing security and logistical problems.

''Last year the President of Iran was invited by the School of International Public Affairs. This year he has a different invitation from the World Leaders Forum and there are leaders who come here from countries all over the world and that gives students a place to hear interesting global leaders here,'' said Prof Sree Sreenivasan, Columbia School of Journalism.

''No speaker is without controversy. Our role as professors is to bring opportunities for our students to meet dynamic, compelling, off-putting people but if they are influential then we have an obligation to give our students a chance to listen to them,'' he added.

Freedom of speech and expression is one of the cornerstones of the constitution of the United States of America.

But the controversy over the invitation to the President of Iran to address the students at one of the most prestigious Institutes of higher education in the country has yet again underscored the challenges faced in transferring that thought into action

Source: www.ndtv.com