Columbia’s invitation to Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad not only shows the world the importance of free speech, but also demonstrates what free speech means.

Ahmadinejad’s Speech at Columbia University Is as American as Apple Pie
By Rebecca Evans 

Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly, in condemning Columbia’s invitation to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, stated that he’s tired of free speech. Ironically, in doing so, he exercised that specific freedom, a privilege that allows critical engagement with elected officials and forces them to defend their actions. He used a right that the people of Iran do not enjoy.

Unlike Americans, who are able to challenge the legitimacy of the Patriot Act or take issue with America’s continued presence in Iraq, Iranians cannot question Ahmadinejad’s nuclear program or theocratic laws. Due to government control of most major media outlets as well as the threat of imprisonment for dissent, they are forced to accept these policies. This lack of freedom of speech gives Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei both a bully pulpit and immunity from accounting for policies.

It is for this reason that Ahmadinejad’s visit to Columbia University on Monday is so vital. He will be challenged by students who will exercise their right to free speech in the way that their counterparts in Iran cannot. They will question his absurd ideological views that the Holocaust never occurred and that Israel should be wiped off the planet. They will force him to account for Iran’s burgeoning nuclear program, interference with American efforts in Iraq, and ongoing support of terrorist groups such as Hezbollah. Most importantly, they will be given the opportunity to impugn Ahmadinejad’s abhorrent oppression of the Iranian people, disputing the rationality of Iran’s misogynist, homophobic, and other malicious laws. In short, Columbia students will get to demand answers to questions that the Iranians cannot so much as utter publicly.

Moreover, Columbia’s invitation to Ahmadinejad not only shows the world the importance of free speech, but also demonstrates what free speech means. Free speech does not simply allow individuals to express their views. It also forces them to defend and validate those views.

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