Meredith Aska McBride | Point: Let Ahmadinejad speak

I'm scared of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Under his presidency, Iran has grown to be a bigger threat to the United States than Iraq ever was. He has called the Holocaust a "myth," said Israel should be "wiped off the map," and continues to develop nuclear capabilities despite United Nations Security Council sanctions. Amnesty International warns of his widespread human-rights violations, and he is vehemently anti-secular.

Most Americans agree that Ahmadinejad is a Very Bad Guy. This does not negate his right to be heard. Opponents of his invitation to speak today at a world leaders' forum at Columbia University are conflating two very different matters: a judgment of the merits of his views and his right to speak those views.

In theory, America stands for free and open debate. We grant the liberty to be wrong under the premise that the truth will win out in a competitive exchange of ideas. If prevailing American views hold up under scrutiny, they are that much more convincing. Universities are the ideal forum for such exchange.

The United States, under the Bush Administration, has certainly been trying to make the case that our democratic principles are superior to any other political philosophy. Our actions, though, have shown that we have a hard time putting these principles into practice lately, from our abuses of due process at Guantanamo to curtailment of civil liberties under the Patriot Act.

Giving Ahmadinejad an honest platform gives us one last chance to make the case for our form of government - if we're really as wonderful as we believe, we should have no trouble convincing anyone else of that fact.

It's appalling that canceling Ahmadinejad's speech was even on the table. He does not have the facts on his side with respect to, say, his Holocaust denial, and I doubt his more subjective opinions on terrorism, Israel, the role of religion in government and the like will be extremely popular with an American university audience.

The Bill of Rights, and our cherished First Amendment, are structural entitlements not dependent on the facts of any given case. These rights are why we gave a man like Timothy McVeigh due process and why even this Supreme Court, normally so responsive to the President's wishes, has rebuked the administration for its abuse of civil liberties by finding many aspects of the trial proceedings at Guantanamo unconstitutional.

And we need to realize that our viewpoint isn't as correct as we'd like to think. As the United States becomes ever cockier in its imperial quest, it is important that our views be challenged. Our actions, in many ways, have allowed crackpots like Ahmadinejad to flourish - there's a reason other countries are going to such great lengths to oppose us.

Our rhetoric has rung hollow in the last few years, from our unilateral wars to our abridgment of our own citizens' rights to the abominable civil-rights situation in Jena, Louisiana, to the slow destruction of our system of federal checks and balances. Those in power know they're deviating from the philosophical foundation of this nation, and they're trying to cover it up.

What are we scared of? Are we scared that mixed in with his nonsense, Ahmadinejad may deliver some legitimate criticisms of our actions in the Middle East? Of our hypocrisy in telling him to shut down Iran's nuclear programs when we control more warheads than any other nation? In telling him to clean up his act on human rights when we perpetrated Abu Ghraib in the name of democratizing Iraq? Can we legitimately criticize Ahmadinejad for willfully ignoring factual evidence that the Holocaust did, indeed, happen when Bush invaded Iraq over non-existent weapons of mass destruction?

Maybe we're scared of the fact that our ill-conceived war in Iraq has only strengthened Ahmadinejad's hand in the Middle East and has made Iran a real threat to our security.

I'm scared of Ahmadinejad, but I'm more scared of those who would deny him the right to speak. I'm scared that we are so shaky in our justifications for our own actions that we are afraid of any criticism, even from someone so clearly unhinged, illegitimate and wrong as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Meredith Aska McBride is a College sophomore from Wauwatosa, Wisc. Her e-mail is mcbride@dailypennsylvanian.com. Radical Chic regularly appears on Wednesdays.

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