Video: Columbia Students Applaud Ahmadinejad's Reply to Bollinger
Mon, Sep 24, 2007 at 2:13:03 pm PDT
Allahpundit has video of Columbia president Lee Bollinger’s speech to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (the one he’s been promising all week as justification for inviting the monster to his school): Video: Bollinger’s rebuke to a “petty and cruel dictator”.
And just for some context, quite a few of the students in the audience were not at all happy with Bollinger’s speech. Here they applaud Ahmadinejad when he blasts Bollinger back:
UPDATE at 9/24/07 2:33:48 pm:
An email from a Columbia student about the applause for Ahmadinejad:
I was in the audience today, and it is completely unfair to characterize the students in the audience as all having clapped for him. [Actually, I didn’t do that. – ed.] We didn’t. The applause you heard was from about 20-30 students (in the back, nearest to the cameras) out of an audience of over 600. Rest assured that 99.9% of Columbia students are absolutely disgusted by this thug, and we’re glad he made himself look even more insane. It’s important for people to understand how truly nuts he is.
UPDATE at 9/24/07 3:17:06 pm:
Another email from a Columbia student:
I am a Columbia student, also at the speech. While Ahmadinejad did get some general applause when he began talking about the Israeli-Palestinian issue, and the “right” for Iran to have “peaceful nuclear energy,” on the whole most people were disgusted with the visit. They saw Ahmadinejad for what he is— as Bollinger called him, a “petty, cruel dictator,” and were not surprised at the way he tried to avoid questions and manipulate the audience. Most of us laughed audibly during his holocaust denials and claims that there are “no gays in Iran.” On the whole, most people realized that him being there was a mistake— because to have rational discourse, parties to the debate have to be, well, rational.
UPDATE at 9/24/07 3:32:31 pm:
After listening again to the applause in the video above, I have to say it sounds like more than 20 or 30 people applauding and cheering.
