The Day Columbia University Allowed A Madman To Speak.

"It was my decision in this valuable forum and meeting to speak with you about the importance of knowledge, of information, of education. Academics and religious scholars are shining torches who shed light in order to remove darkness and the ambiguities around us in guiding humanity out of ignorance and perplexity."

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"Whenever the high stature of science and wisdom is preserved and the dignity of scholars and researchers are respected, humans have taken great strides towards their material and spiritual promotion. In contrast, whenever learned people and knowledge have been neglected, humans have become stranded in the darkness of ignorance and negligence. If it were not for human instinct, which tends towards continual discovery of the truth, humans would have always remained stranded in ignorance and no way would have discovered how to improve the lives that we are given."

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"My dear friends, all the words and messages of the divine prophets, from Abraham and Isaac and Jacob to David and Solomon and Moses to Jesus and Mohammed, delivered humans from ignorance, negligence, superstitions, unethical behavior and corrupted ways of thinking with respect to knowledge and a path to knowledge, light and rightful ethics.
In our culture, the word 'science' has been defined as 'illumination.' In fact, the 'science' means 'brightness' and the real science is a science which rescues the human being from ignorance to his own benefit. In one of the widely accepted definitions of science, it is stated that it is the light which sheds to the hearts of those who have been selected by the Almighty"

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"My dear friends, as long as the human heart is not free from hatred, envy and selfishness, it does not abide by the truth, by the illumination of science and science itself. Science is the light and scientists must be pure and pious. If humanity achieves the highest level of physical and spiritual knowledge, but its scholars and scientists are not pure, then this knowledge cannot serve the interest of humanity, and several events can ensue.

First, the wrongdoers reveal only a part of the reality which is to their own benefit and conceal the rest, as we have witnessed with respect to the scholars of the divine religions in the past too. Unfortunately today we see that certain researchers and scientists are still hiding the truth from the people.

Second, scientists and scholars are misused for personal, group or party interests. So in today's world, ruling powers are misusing many scholars and scientists in different fields, with the purpose of stripping nations of their wealth.

And they use all opportunities only for their own benefit."


From a speech given on September 24 2007 at Columbia University by the President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
A speech which he commenced with the reciting of verses from the Koran: "Oh, God, hasten the arrival of Imam al- Mahdi and grant him good health and victory, and make us his followers and those who attest to his rightfulness."


AUTHOR'S NOTE:
The raids and killings that the President of Iran has perpetrated, on it's students and universities, only proves that Ahmadinejad's speech at Columbia U. was nothing more than a madman's ramblings; in psychology we call this "projection."

The hiding and silence that the President of Columbia University has had, on behalf of the struggle of Iranian students, only show's that the speech was allowed not in the name of ""enlightenment"" but for the sake of political propaganda; in society we call this cowardice.