The outrage and controversy sparked by the visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to New York were amplified after he spoke at Columbia University on Monday.

Ahmadinejad was introduced by the university’s president Lee Bollinger as a “petty and cruel dictator” and from that point it became clear that a showdown between the controversial leader and the American public will take place.

Numerous journalists crowded the venue, while thousands of protesters gathered outside the upper West Side campus. In this tense atmosphere Columbia’s president introduced his guest and added several stinging remarks.

“Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator,” Bollinger said, after being heavily criticized for his decision to invite Ahmadinejad to speak at the annual world leader's forum.

US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger were among those who condemned the invitation and clearly reflect the opinion of thousands.

Once again Bollinger defended his decision, saying Ahmadinejad’s visit will help people confront “the mind of evil.” He asked the Iranian leader to explain the execution of 210 activists, the country’s support of extremists and alleged human rights violations.

Bollinger outlined that Ahmadinejad’s rejection of the Holocaust poses some questions about his brainpower.

“When you come to a place like this, it makes you simply ridiculous. The truth is that the Holocaust is the most documented event in human history,” Bollinger said.

But regardless of the massive protests and the tendentious questions, Ahmadinejad kept his cool and stuck to his position that the Holocaust may have not existed and Iran’s nuclear program serves only peaceful purposes.

The leader said Bollinger’s words represent an “insult” aimed at offering a subjective tone to the interview and stressed that would never happen in Iran.

“We don't think it's necessary ... to come in with a series of claims and to attempt in a so-called manner to provide vaccination of some sort to our students,” Ahmadinejad said, while receiving a first round of applause.

When asked about Iran’s attitude towards homosexuals, Ahmadinejad provoked laughter and boos by answering: “We don't have homosexuals like in your country. We don't have that in our country.”

Referring to the relations with Israel, Ahmadinejad said reconciliation is far from being reached because the Jewish state continues to oppress Palestinians. However, he said relations with other countries such as the United States should return to normal after long series of disputes.

Ahmadinejad reiterated that his country’s uranium enrichment program serves only peaceful purposes and guarantees Iran’s independence. The UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Tehran for defying demands to stop its nuclear proliferation and it seems like a new round of sanctions are about to emerge.

“We want to have the right to self-determination toward our future,” Ahmadinejad said. “We want to be independent.”

When the US offered to supply Iran with enriched uranium, he said Iran doesn’t want to rely on products from abroad because of past hurdles raised by the international community.

“You've not even given us spare aircraft parts that we need for civilian aircraft for 28 years, under the name of embargo and sanctions,” he said.

Before he attended the conference at Columbia University, Ahmadinejad slammed the reports that his country is supporting militants in Iraq, saying such actions do not exist.

The Tehran government has been accused of training and equipping Shiite militias fighting coalition forces in Iraq, but Ahmadinejad denied the allegations and said the US military must take responsibility for its defeats.

“The military should seek an answer to its defeat in Iraq elsewhere, in the misguided policies that it has led, in the wrong perspective that it has had toward Iraq and its people,” Ahmadinejad said.

The controversial leader also said that the reports criticizing Iran for alleged human-rights violations and discrimination against women are wrong.

“Our people are the freest people in the world, the most aware people in the world, the most enlightened, so to say,” he said, adding that, “The freest women in the world are women in Iran.”

Ahmadinejad said Iran’s international image has been distorted and blasted critics, saying, “We should all have the capacity to listen to everything … I'm surprised, in a place where they claim that they have freedom of information, they are trying to prevent people from talking.”