Principles in Practice: The Blog of the Objective Standard

Monday, September 24, 2007

More on Ahmadinejad's Forum at Columbia

Posted by Craig Biddle at 1:53 PM

In case the relativist “principle” guiding Lee Bollinger’s choice to invite Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia was not clear enough in his earlier statement, here is a brief video of him making it even clearer. The “principle” is that anyone willing to “debate”—regardless of his complicity in the torture and murder of thousands of people to date—regardless of his aspirations to torture and murder many more—regardless even of whether he has orchestrated the torture and murder of millions of people—will have a forum to speak at Columbia, because, after all, everyone’s opinions are equally deserving of consideration. To make this point perfectly clear, Bollinger tells us:

If Hitler were in the United States and wanted a platform from which to speak … if he were willing to engage in the debate and a discussion, to be challenged by Columbia’s students and faculty, we would certainly invite him.