When Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits New York for the U.N. General Assembly, he is due to dine on September 21 with students from the Columbia International Relations Council and Association (CIRCA). A CIRCA spokesman says they are “thrilled to have this opportunity.” The students should use the opportunity to press Ahmadinejad on the following:
Currently Iran is outdoing itself in repression. In the aftermath of its violent attacks on the democratic opposition following the 2009 elections, the regime has been increasing arrests not only of political opponents but of the religiously differing. Jamsheed Chosky reports that Ayatollah Ahmed Jannati, chairman of the Council of Guardians and adviser to Ahmadinejad, has denounced non-Muslims as “animals who roam the Earth and engage in corruption.”