Ahmadinejad Draws Parallels Between U.S. and Iranian Capital Punishment

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s much-anticipated speech at Columbia University touched on the death penalty in a way that may have been slightly embarrassing for some capital punishment supporters. A little over halfway through his controversial speech the moderator asked Ahmadinejad a question about his country’s human rights record, including its policy of “execution on Iranian citizens who are homosexuals.” After addressing the other parts of the question, Ahmadinejad asked how the United States would deal with illicit drug traffickers and other criminals and then finished with a pointed “Don't you have capital punishment in the United States? You do, too,” which elicited applause from the sellout crowd. Ahmadinejad continued, sounding less like one of the most reviled leaders this century and more like an ambitious American politician trying to sound tough on crime:

In Iran, too, there's capital punishment for illicit drug traffickers, for people who violated the rights of people. If somebody takes up a gun, goes into a house, kills a group of people there, and then tries to take ransom, how would you confront them in Iran -- or in the United States? Would you reward them? […]We have laws. People who violate the public rights of the people by using guns, killing people, creating insecurity, sells drugs, distribute drugs at a high level are sentenced to execution in Iran.

Ultimately, Ahmadinejad’s remarks on the death penalty were overshadowed by his typically incendiary remarks on Israel, the holocaust, and the non-existence (in his opinion) of homosexuals in Iran. However, the parallels drawn by a man who is considered by many to be the absolute epitome of radicalism, barbarism, and intolerance between his country and ours with respect to capital punishment were still striking when examined with a more objective eye.

Washington Post transcript of event.