Such An Enlightened People

[Tsukiyumi]

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran has imposed new restrictions on 12 university social sciences deemed to be based on Western schools of thought and therefore incompatible with Islamic teachings, state radio reported Sunday.

The list includes law, philosophy, management, psychology, political science and the two subjects that appear to cause the most concern among Iran's conservative leadership - women's studies and human rights.

"The content of the current courses in the 12 subjects is not in harmony with religious fundamentals and they are based on Western schools of thought," senior education official Abolfazl Hassani told state radio.

Hassani said the restrictions prevent universities from opening new departments in these subjects. The government will also revise the content of current programs by up to 70 percent over the next few years, he said.

The decision is seen as a response to concerns expressed last year by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said the subjects could lead to religious doubts. Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters in Iran, urged officials to take altering the curriculum into "serious consideration."

Some two million out of 3.5 million Iranian university students are studying social sciences and humanities, according to government statistics.

University students have played a key role in opposition protests in Iran, especially after the country's disputed presidential election last year, which opposition activists say hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won through massive fraud.

Since Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005, he has pushed a revival of the fundamentalist goals pursued in the 1980s under the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, father of the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran.

In 2006, dozens of liberal university professors and teachers were sent into retirement, drawing strong protests from students. Liberal and secular professors teach at universities around the country, but they are a minority. Most are politically passive and do not identify with either the hard-liners or the liberal camp.

In 1980, Iran closed down universities for two years to get rid of partisan students of political groups, mostly armed leftist ones.

Source

So... human rights and Islam aren't compatible? Wow.

[Tyyr]

Makes sense really. The universities and the progressive minded students they are cranking out are a real pain in the ass for Iranian leadership. When you've got the level of control they've got over things why not go ahead and quash your biggest source of opposition? Just wondering how management courses conflict with Islamic teaching.

[Mikey]

Obviously, management conventional wisdom ignores traditional Tehran methodologies - rule through intimidation, punishment by dismemberment, and all the other things that account for good old-fashioned Iranian team-building.

So, in general - human rights/fairness toward women and extremist Islamic sects are incompatible. In other news, a Vatican press release just confirmed that the pope is Catholic.

[Deepcrush]

[JudgeKing]

And water is wet.

[Tsukiyumi]

So, in general - human rights/fairness toward women and extremist Islamic sects are incompatible.

I don't know if I'd characterize it as extremism; it seems like par for the course for Islamic theocracies. Can it be labeled "extremism" if it's a majority?

[Mikey]

So, in general - human rights/fairness toward women and extremist Islamic sects are incompatible.

I don't know if I'd characterize it as extremism; it seems like par for the course for Islamic theocracies. Can it be labeled "extremism" if it's a majority?

It is perhaps a majority in Iran; I called it an "extremist Islamic sect" to differentiate it from the majority of Islamic practitioners worldwide.

[Tsukiyumi]

It is perhaps a majority in Iran; I called it an "extremist Islamic sect" to differentiate it from the majority of Islamic practitioners worldwide.

You mean like the ones in the Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan, Syria, and the majority of northern Africa?

[Deepcrush]

Is anyone really surprised by this?

[Tyyr]

Just that it took them this long.

[Deepcrush]

I can agree with that...

[Mikey]

Actually, Tsu, I meant the millions living in the U.S., U.K.o.G.B.a.N.I., Western Europe, etc.

[Tsukiyumi]

But are those folks the majority of practitioners?

[Mikey]

I believe - and all it is is my belief, if someone has data to corroborate or deny it I'd be happy to hear it - that extremists of any sect in Islam (such as the ruling faction of Iran) are outnumbered worldwide by normal folks who just want to live and practice their Islamic faith.

In my first year of college, I lived next door to two randomly-matched roommates - one a Sunni, one a Shi'ite.^* One of my best friends that year was a young Pakistani man. This was not long after the reign of the Ayatollah Khomeni - the original one, who wrote the book on religious nuttiness and the Western devil. Were I to assume that all Muslims acted like the Ayatollah, I'd still be in jail for savagely beating all three of those innocent young men.

^* Believe you me, we had partial scripts already written for a sitcom. We even had a theme song half-written - a cover/spoof of Dee-Lite's biggest hit, tentatively titled "Groove is in Jihad."

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

I'd watch that, Mikey.

I'm not surprised by this, more's the pity.