by Bay Fang
NEW YORK — With NYPD helicopters circling overhead, a few thousand Columbia University students sat out under the hot sun waiting for President Ahmadinejad, taking pictures with their cellphones, picnicking and chatting, in what had become a holiday atmosphere.
A group of sophomores, political science majors, debated the merits of allowing Ahmadinejad on campus. “It makes me so proud to be a student here,” said Anna Couturier, a 19-year-old with a pierced tongue and strong opinions. “It’s all about letting us get direct access to him, without being filtered through the media.”
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“But where do you draw the line?” asked her roommate, Danielle Ash. “We didn’t let the military on campus because of the don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy.”
The crowd of thousands reserved their most raucous, almost disbelieving applause came when their president, Lee Bollinger, began the program with a scathing introduction of Ahmadinejad, saying this was a chance to “confront the mind of evil.” “Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator,” Bollinger said.
(See Ahmadinejad’s full remarks at Columbia) and read on:Ahmadinejad responded by saying, through an interpreter, that the students should be able to judge him for themselves, without what he called a “vaccination” in his introduction.
His speech was rambling and less provocative than usual, beginning with a long biblical defense of the importance of science and accusing “some groups” of “creating nonexistent enemies” in the name of security.
But the q-and-a quickly became heated, with students submitting questions on index cards that challenged him on everything from his view of Israel to homosexuality.
Ahmadinejad backtracked on his previous denial of the Holocaust, saying that while it happened, there was not enough research on it. “A number of European academics are in prison because they want to approach the subject from a different perspective,” he said.
When pressed about the issue of punishment of homosexuals, he said: “In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country.” As the audience jeered, he continued, “In Iran we do not have this phenomenon. I don’t know who’s told you that we have this.”
Afterwards, the students seemed subdued, processing, almost stunned as they filed quietly off the yard.