A perversion of free speech

0 Comments | USA TODAY, September, 2007 | by Abraham H. Foxman

All the reasons given to provide a platform at Columbia University to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad just don't hold up and don't even begin to compare with the damage done by giving legitimacy to a dangerous and evil figure.

Of course, the first defense of the invitation is free speech. The idea that free speech obligates a university to host a program where the speaker, a head of state, is one who denies the Holocaust, calls for the destruction of the state of Israel, supports international terrorism and seeks to acquire nuclear weapons is a perversion of that doctrine.

Columbia University has no moral, legal or social imperative to provide such a platform. As president of Iran, Ahmadinejad has many platforms to convey his messages of hate every day....