Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, does not strike me as the kind of guy I’d enjoy sharing a cart with in a round of golf. In fact, to be perfectly honest, the guy gives me the creeps. If even half the stuff that is reported about him is true, extreme caution is in order when dealing with him.
Still, I think it is a very good thing that he was invited to speak by Columbia University. What happened yesterday at their controversial speakers’ forum is the kind of thing that just might keep us from resorting to bombs and guns in our international dealings. As long as we can keep engaged in dialogue there is hope that maybe the day will come that Iran and the world community will agree that whatever our differences, as profound and complicated as they are, they aren’t worth going to war over. Because, once we go to war, everybody loses. Ongoing conversation, on the other hand, furthers the chances that each party will discover elements of common humanity upon which they can lay foundations for more peaceful resolutions.
Isolating and stigmatizing usually ends up stiffening resolve and defiance. Despots and tyrants when backed into a corner tend to resort to desperation to preserve their power. That’s when the neighborhood gets really dangerous.
I’m a firm believer in the concept that in the free exchange of ideas truth will ultimately prevail. Freedom of speech is a cornerstone of liberty. It is one of those values brave individuals have fought to preserve on the battlefield. What sense does it make to defend it and then deny it to a person we hope to win over to our way of thinking? So let’s keep talking. Sure, we will have to work hard to get past the revulsion we feel toward a guy that denies the Holocaust and has called for the destruction of Israel, but while we are listening there is a much greater likelihood that we will also be listened to.
Jesus said, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. It’s pretty hard to share a meal with anyone without having some conversation. Therein is the key to overcoming evil with good. It is the opposite of scorning, intimidating and threatening.
So, Mahmoud, let’s do lunch.
