Important Pieces on Ahmadinejad's Columbia Visit

I have been scanning the news since yesterday to find some new approaches to the controversy surrounding Ahmadinejad. I'll be the first to tell you how I am not his biggest fan (or a fan at all for that matter...), but I think the approaches of different sources and people to this issue is an interesting reflection of their ability to productively and effectively discuss those with whom they disagree.

Jon Host wrote an interesting piece where he talked about how unproductive and petty the comments that the President of Columbia made before the speech/dialog were. In the last year, I've become very interested in how the process of dialog and real, thoughtful intellectual discourse has been degraded by people in the media name-calling and avoiding the real issues. The more obvious examples are things like Ann Coulter (indirectly) calling John Edwards a faggot, and the less obvious examples occur everyday in media outlets (and programs) across the country. Host argues that as much as we disagree with Ahmadinejad's views, it doesn't further any kind of discussion or even shut down any argument properly to just be rude and petty, like Bollinger was. I think Ahmadinejad's holocaust denial tells a much larger story about the lack of education in places like Iran about the holocaust, jewish history, and the state of Israel. Since the 70s, that country has refused to take a holistic approach to history (don't worry, I don't kid myself into believing the US does so completely), especially with regards to the issue of Israel. This misinformation will continue to rear its ugly head in politics as long as the religious conservatives are in control of Iran. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not excusing anyone's ignorance, I'm simply saying: we can't have a fruitful discussion about the larger problem here because people are simply writing Ahmadinejad off as a lunatic.

Sam Sedaei wrote another interesting post at HuffPo, talking about how people are so obsessed with Iran being a nuclear threat to Israel (when they have no nuclear weapons...), that they forget to really press the human rights issues which are going on Iran frequently, and largely ignored. Additionally, he argues that by showering him with the media spotlight, we are very much feeding into exactly what he wants and envisions for himself. I was really pleased that he is being given a voice, and while I'm not sure I completely agree with every point in the blog, he makes a lot of compelling points that the mainstream sources of course failed to mention.

Links:
Jon Host: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Columbia's "Controversy"
Sam Sedaei: Smartest Man in the Room