Monday, September 24, 2007

Free Speech

Do you agree with the Columbia University decision to extend an invitation for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak to students?

37 comments:

joel weis said...

i guess it is. Every one has the right to free speech.

holls said...

Sure??

terry said...

yes because they have a right to show poeple different views

Heidi said...

No,because he is the President from Iran and they house terrorists. This is very disrespectful to all of the families from the 9-11 victims. Yes everyone has a right to free speech but we as Americans have a right to honor our own citizens.

Margo said...

I think he has the right to speak about his believes. I also think students are smart enough to decide whether they believe what he says, and I don't believe anyone would actually buy what he says. It could actually be interesting to hear a completely other view on things, even though if we think it is wrong.

DirtyDeeds said...

I don't know a whole lot about Iran, but i think that you can't judge a book by its cover. It is true that America looks at about every middle east country as a terrorist country. What I'm trying to say is that although there may be terrorists in Iran, that does not necessarily mean that the Iranian president is a terrorist. There are terrorists here in the United States, but that does not mean that Bush is a bad guy. So i think it was alright to let him speak.

jake kling said...

no

Trachsel said...

I don't this guy and what he intends to do.

Jorge520 said...

i think he can if he is helping the students any other way no

Ren said...

i don't think he has any right to be in this country.

Anonymous said...

yes what dirty deeds said

jake kling said...

sure why dont we ask Hitler for his views

hallianne said...

I don't know much about this. But i think that if they thought it was ok it must have been. Because they have their own way of looking at things.

Amanda said...

I am not familiar with this problem.

Renea said...

He does not believe the Holocaust happened, believes in the extermination of all homosexuals, encourages the destruction of Israel, and has been accused of encouraging terrorism. I think he's mental, and there is really nothing that could be gained or learned from inviting him to speak at a college. All he did was spread his propaganda.

KRUNCH said...

maybe to a certain extent but then they have there own views.

callee said...

mmm. no.

Doke said...

I do not disagree with Columbia University allowing the Iranian President to speak at their college. Although when they agreed to let him speak they knew his rash ideas and his radical point of views so they should have known what they were getting into. He dodged many serious questions and danced around the truth making it seem like he had a lot to hide.

andrew miller said...

I think that it is alright to let him speak at the university as long as everyone doesnt listen to what the lunatic has to say.

Sammie said...

I can' really say because I don't know the person and I don't know what he is talking about... I guess I need to catch up on the news!

Marisa said...

I have no idea what you are talking about!!!

DI said...

No i don't think so. I think he has no business bothering us, or being in our country

Jonathan M said...

i think it is ok since this give us a chance to bring him here and which might make him more probable to answer.

Ma-Choo said...

I agree with Heidi in the fact that it is very disrespectful for the families that had beloved ones die in the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. This was not a good idea, because he supports terrorist groups. It made me very upset that he lied on live television after we had already known that he planned to "wipe Israel off the map." I believe that this probably made a lot of people very angry. In that hour or so he lied a numerous amount of times and tried to make America seem like the bad guys.

Anonymous said...

boneI dont really see the point in him coming here to speak, why should we give him our freedom of speach if he wont even give his own country that and i dont think we should have givin him a chance to share his views because we already heard them in his holocaust interview thing if people wanted his views they could have just watched that.

CC said...

I don't think it was a good idea having him come here.We already know his view on things. We also already know that he dosen't like our country and is very hostile so why even take a chance. For all we know by insulting and critizing him we have just given him more reasons to hate us.

Ashley C. said...

I think it was disrespectful of him to come into our country and hide and lie about some of the questions he was asked. He could have said what he wanted from his country not barge into ours and stir up trouble.

britt. said...

Sure, he should be allowed to speak. Everyone should be allowed to speak. I think it was a good idea, because most people don't know the first thing about Iran or Ahmadinejad, so having him speak over here gives us some insight as to how he is, and what he's about. It's funny that nothing productive came out of the interview though, he pretty much just dodged questions and lied, so he just made himself look bad. He had a good opportunity and blew it.

toby said...

yes we should let him speak if he wants. He didn't have to come but he did and although he lied about everything we still showed the world how much we believe in our free speech. We need to protect that before we protect people's feelings. Stupid Columbia alumni can tear up their diploma's if they want, no one made them.

GtownCowboy said...

Not only do I think it was appropriate to have him speak, I think it was quite useful to hear what he had to say. The cultural and religious differences are alarming to me on many levels. The mere fact that he was able to publicly speak in the U.S. is a testament to our primary principles of government. The complete ignorance of some of his statements, also show the disparity of our systems. I also think the President of the University handled the speaker very well, and called him to task over previous recorded statements. A good learning experience all the way around......

Casey said...

Not for Mahmoud everybody knows what hes about and everybody knew he was just going to lie. They achieved nothing from this.

bunnylover said...

I believe he was in a controlled environment where he was preaching his beliefs to a group of student who know there beliefs. I dont like that he did speak here but its over and we cant do anything about it.

hAnNaH. said...

yes, everyone should be aloud to speak. that's what freedom of speech is for. i think it would also be good for the students to look at the different views.

travo said...

i dont think it was a bad idea or good idea, as long as it was surely controlle.

BAM said...

no al he is and did was lie ayway.

dox said...

no he could bring some kind of weapon and start to shoot people

Anonymous said...

I don't really care if he spoke or not. it does not make a difference to me, except the fact that this was the first time i heard him. so i would say that having him speak got some attention about what Mahmoud is all about, avoiding questions and plain out saying something not even related, turning the question around.