Ahmadinejad's Academic Pilgrims By Robert Spencer

When Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke at Columbia University, Columbia’s President Lee Bollinger offered to travel to Iran himself, in the interests of promoting freedom of speech there: “Let me,” he implored Ahmadinejad, “lead a delegation of students and faculty from Columbia to address your university about free speech, with the same freedom we afford you today. Will you do that?”

Now, a delegation from Columbia is indeed planning to go to Tehran – but it isn’t quite the delegation that Bollinger had in mind. Tehran’s Mehr News Agency recently reported that a group of Columbia University professors, including faculty deans, are preparing a trip to Iran, but not to promote free speech. Instead, they’re going to present an official apology to Iran’s President, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, for the way he was treated by Columbia President Lee Bollinger when he visited the university last September.

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