Iran announces plan to purge universities of Western influences

[Heidi]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Humanities curricula will be revised to bring them more in line with Islamic principles, an official says. Critics say the move is based on 'fascism and totalitarianism.'

September 7, 2009

Reporting from Beirut - A hard-line deputy of Iran's supreme leader announced steps Sunday to purge Iranian universities of Western influences even as the government faced accusations of "fascism and totalitarianism" leveled by the country's former president.

Hamid Reza Ayatollahi, head of a government body that oversees universities, announced a plan to revise humanities curricula to bring them more in line with Islamic principles.

"Many of the syllabuses taught to students majoring in humanities are not in line with Iranian and Islamic culture and therefore their revision is a must," Ayatollahi said in a statement published by Iranian news agencies.

A committee has been established to "eliminate certain curricula and replace them with Islamic materials," he said.

The effort stemmed from a speech last week by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said that humanities courses result in "disbelief in Islamic and divine teachings" and are mostly based on "materialist philosophical concepts causing misgivings about religious principles."


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran-schools7-2009sep07,0,5819128.story

[TygrBright]

1. hooboy. Fuse, meet match.

:popcorn:

interestedly,
Bright

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JDPriestly]

3. This reminds me of the late 60s, early 70s when Nixon purged the

universities of young faculty in liberal arts. He did it in a way that few noticed by just cutting the funding out of programs that funded many of the liberal arts departments. We are now seeing the results of his purge: business and political science majors who crunch numbers and do not understand the human heart running the country.

[AngryAmish]

18. In the 60s and 70s the Federal Government funded programs in the liberal arts?

proof?

[JDPriestly]

20. That is how my husband got to go to graduate school.

It was called an NDEA fellowship. There were lots of other ways. They funded grants for overseas study, all kinds of things that made it possible for students to get degrees in liberal arts fields, especially language and literature. Along with state funding they made a lot of difference. If students don't get fellowships to study, then graduate departments are closed and professors and other teaching staff are laid off.

[Igel]

25. Oddly, I was in Slavic and got Title VI

funds.

There were other federal funds available. I knew others in Slavic and Near Eastern who got far more federal funds than I did.

Oddly, I personally favored cutting the funds. The program was set up in the early '60s as a response to Sputnik, and was there to make sure that we understood the languages and cultures of "strategically important" countries. One of the half-dozen or so goals was to inform US policy by providing cadres of CIA, NSA, and State Dept. officers; another was to produce translators. Yet in both departments, to say you wanted to work for the government or go into translation (except possibly literary translation, or working as a translator for a pro-Palestinian NGO) was a death sentence--you could be sure of never being nominated or awarded funds, esp. Title VI funds. Since the faculty were at odds with the purpose of the funds--as were many of the students (esp. in Near Eastern--to say you wanted to work for the CIA would get you in Dutch with most of the Arabists)--they simply shouldn't accept them.

Even "my" money was contingent upon learning a Slavic language, except by the time I was proposed for the funding I'd had my two years of Czech, two years of Serbian, and was fluent enough in Russian to only qualify for a 2-credit "maintenance" course; I was "over quota" for languages, in fact. I took the course, got the money, and only later, when working for the on-campus entity that coordinated this funding, found that 2 credits of "maintenance" didn't qualify in either qualitative or quantitative terms. The records submitted said I took a 4-credit course. In other words, caught with their pants down, my faculty lied to the government.

[JDPriestly]

31. I was wrong about the dates when these programs were cut.

They were cut shortly after 1968. Graduate programs in languages and literature just folded.

I think the programs were excellent and needed today. Children in other countries begin learning a second language at a fairly early age. Many American children never learn even just a tiny bit of a second language. It is freeing, it is empowering, it is a joy to know a second language especially in this day of the internet and satellite TV.

[msongs]

4. some religions just cant stand competition lol nt

[BunkerHill24]

5. Indeed! But here's a news for you!

27 Iranians In World's Top 100 Scientists List
Saturday, 5 September 2009


Twenty seven Iranian scientistsscientists have been named among the 100-member-list of the most prominent scientists in the world, the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) has announced, Press TV reported.

The ISI, now part of the Healthcare & Science business of the multi-billion dollar Thomson Reuters Corporation, has put 27 Iranians in different scientific fields were registered among the world's most prominent scientists.

Mohammad-Reza Ganjali was put in the 48th place to be the highest-ranking Iranian in the list.

On choosing the scientists, the ISI took into consideration their world ranking; the university, the field of the education as well as the h-index for each nominee, IRIB quoted Parviz Olya, an Iranian Health Ministry official, as saying.

The h-index measures both the scientific productivity and the apparent scientific impact of a scientist.

It is based on the set of the scientist's most cited papers and the number of citations that they have received in other people's publications.

http://www.turkishweekly.net/news/88083/-27-iranians-in-world-s-top-100-scientists-list.html

[marshall]

14. I wonder how many of those scientists will be looking for other jobs after the purge?

They shouldn't have a hard time, providing they are willing to move.

[oct2010]

15. you figure they'll pull an Einstein and flee ? the wrath of Kahn will follow them

The rest of their days as long as the fascists remain in power in TEHRAN

[AlbertCat]

10. some religions just cant stand competition lol

Really! I hope the Creationists are paying attention. Let's just hear them decry this!

[Gman2]

6. They intend to become more than also-rans. This makes sense

and not in itself evil or nefarious.

[bemildred]

7. Sounds like the reactionaries are circling the wagons. nt

[DavidDvorkin]

8. Even this will be defended on DU. Remarkable.

[oct2010]

9. Purity is halal and fundamentally accepted way of life. Oh, and twitter needs to be purged

We should recognize their customs and allow them to spread the wealth of their enlightened ways. Xtian fundies are the prefferred real evil that needs attacked ( due to their 'turn the other cheek view)

just don't slam certain cultures as they will not tolerate the insults.
:sarcasm:


btw
death to amerikkka

[JonQ]

11. Take out the western influence and you take out much of

what a university ought to be teaching.

Not much left then but ancient history, islam and perhaps nuclear engineering (I'm sure that will be an exception).

[oct2010]

17. what remains is a glorified madrassas

Where you are privilidged to pray five times a day to a city located in the house of Saud. At least the level of hate isnlt played up aqs it is in the Saudi funded schools of higher education around the world

[jeffbr]

12. Yeah, burn Einstein's books and that modern physics nonsense

[oct2010]

13. do they still burn cartoonists at the stake ? They can use alberts books to fan the flames

Of hatred and ill will of all things that confound and confuse them

Death to amerikkka

[Odin2005]

16. Proof that Religion is incompatible with Science.

:puke:

[BOG PERSON]

21. Did you even read the story?

It's about removing Western literature from liberal arts studies.

[Xithras]

28. Not just literature

They're talking about removing philosophical works that deal with controversial topics such as...reasoning and rationality. They have stated a desire to eliminate curriculum that emphasizes critical thought in general, and not just science or literature.

They don't want people to question.

[FarCenter]

19. The story is about "humanities courses", not science courses

It's hard to get an exact read on Shia views of each science, but it appears that their clerics would have no issue with modern chemistry, physics, math and engineering courses.

In the life sciences, they may actually have less of an issue with things like evolution and stem cell research than do the catholic church and evangelical christians. There may even be a claim that a theory of evolution was originated by a Persian in the 13th century. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_in_Iran

Their bigger issues would be with the social sciences, political science, philosophy, etc.

[oct2010]

23. I always considered humanities courses to be the strongest pillar of the liberal arts foundation .

the story isn't about purging progressive beliefs ?

I beg to differ as they are putting the emphasis on religious thought control and away from the trivial pursuits of any sort of individual identity thoughts that are outside their control.

[FarCenter]

24. I was responding generally to the comments that hypothesized an interference with science

You can get a fine scientific education in secular, christian, jewish, islamic, buddhist, etc. universities so long as you pretty much ignore the humanities. You can get a PhD in physics without taking more than a smattering of humanities courses, which will be irrelevant to the physics in any case.

[LeftishBrit]

22. Religious fundies fear education; it can make people think for themselves...

and that would never do.

[CanonRay]

26. Is this from the Texas school board?

[slackmaster]

27. They're setting themselves up for another Revolution

:nuke:

[damntexdem]

29. They plan to retain one Western principle: religious intolerance.

It's a principle long challenged in the west, but one still quite alive -- and fully embraced by Iran's religious mafia.

[brooklynite]

30. and no more "American Cheese" in the cafeteria...