Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Publish date: August 31 • Printable version    

Khamenei condemns teaching of humanities


Khamenei and university staff at eftar dinner

Iran’s Supreme Leader, in a gathering of university deans, professors and scholars, expressed his concerns over the teaching of humanities in Iranian universities and that from the three and a half million nationwide university students, two million were enrolled in this field.

He claimed the teaching of humanities “results in the spread of suspicion in ideological and religious foundation.” He added that the universities did not have that many expert professors in Islamic ideology to teach all those classes.

The teachings of humanities, he declared, were in large part based on materialistic philosophies and lack of faith in Islamic and divine teachings.

Khamenei insisted that students should concentrate more on their faith. Khamenei is a proponent of reviewing university curricula and reconsideration of any section that is influenced by Western theories.

His comments were foreshadowed by the possibly coerced testimony of Saeed Hajjarian, imprisoned reformist ideologue, who recanted all his writings in the mass trial of post-election protesters. Hajjarian claimed the teaching of deviant sciences in university, access to books and various scientific resources and the hiring of foreign-educated professors has caused the spread of worldviews that are not in tune with conditions in Iran.

Hajjarian’s defense also tied vandalism and the destruction of public and private property in the post-election protests with the teaching of humanities.

Comments of the visitors

With all due respects, the correct translation for that particular university subject in here ought to be "Anthropology" or maybe Human Sciences but NEVER 'humanities' as you have brought it up in here! Since Anthroplogical research is based mostly on scientific fact derived from Darwinism, the fact that man comes from ape, it is in direct conflict with religious teachings, which believe man was created by God

-- nonamen ، Aug 31, 2009

"The humanities are academic disciplines which study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytic, critical, or speculative"from wikipedia. Two million Iranian students are not majoring in anthropology rather the disciplines that are united under the quoted definition. And it is the analytical, critical and speculative nature of these disciplines that doesn't agree with the Supreme Leader's worldview.

-- Coral ، Sep 4, 2009

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