Iran targets liberal academics
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, has
urged students to push for a purge of liberal and secular teachers from
universities.
How different are they?
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, has urged students to push for a purge of liberal and secular teachers from universities.
“Today, students should shout at the president and ask why liberal and secular university lecturers are present in the universities,” the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted him as saying during a meeting with students.
Ahmadinejad complained that reforms in the country’s universities were difficult to accomplish and that the education system had been affected by secularism for the last 150 years.
Since taking office a year ago, Ahmadinejad has also moved to replace pragmatic veterans in the government and diplomatic corps with former military commanders and religious hardliners.
Earlier this year, dozens of liberal university professors and teachers were sent into retirement, and last November, Ahmadinejad’s administration for the first time named a cleric to head the country’s oldest institution of higher education, Tehran University - drawing strong protests from students.
His administration has also launched crackdowns on independent journalists, websites and bloggers.
Change a few names and it sounds as American as mom, baseball and apple pie — nowadays.
Then, there’s these guys who’ve been lining up for years to really straighten out education in the United States.
Posted: Wed - September 6, 2006 at 06:46 AM