Speaking of freedom in academic inquiry at Columbia...

Ahmadinejad launches 'Second Islamic Cultural Revolution' at Iran's 170 universities
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad looks at the nation's universities and sees a counter-revolution. The president regards intellectual freedom as a threat to the Islamic regime as the United States examines ways to block Teheran from its nuclear weapons program.

Students walk past a banner picturing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a new school in the southeastern city of Zahedan on Aug. 18. AFP/ISNA

As a result, Ahmadinejad has directed changes in Iran's university system, with 170 universities and colleges. Under the new rules, university applicants must answer questions on Shi'ism and demonstrate their commitmentsto the regime. The Islamic regime waited 28 years -- after 10 million Iranian were graduated -- to understand that Iran's universities were becoming a hotbed of unrest. But Ahmadinejad has decided to clean house and launch what he terms the "Second Islamic Cultural Revolution."

The first so-called Islamic cultural revolution was led by Ali Khamenei, today's the nation's supreme leader, and purged more than 6,000 university professors and lecturers. Dozens of academics were executed, hundreds fled into exile and their places were filled with supporters of the revolution.