September 05, 2006

Iran Purging Liberal Academics

It looks like Ahmadinejad is attempting to start his own cultural revolution by purging the universities of liberals and secularists. And, like Mao's culurual revolution, the madman of Tehran wishes the purges to come from the bottom up.

He's encouraging students to purge the universities. It may seem infeasible, given the anti-regime stance of students, but the right mix of top down pressure and looking the other way when "extremists" "go too far" has been known to get results in the past.

This is worrisome because Iran's universities are the locus of opposition to Khomeinism, sharia, and religious conservatism. When we hear, as we do so often, that the Iranian street despises the ruling Mullahs, it is almost always university students giving those sentiments voice.

If Ahmadinejad succeeds in purging the universities, then the last best hope for peaceful regime change in Iran will have been crushed.

AP:

Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Tuesday for a purge of liberal and secular teachers from the country's universities, urging students to return to 1980s-style radicalism.

The president, in his role as head of the country's Council of Cultural Revolution, does have the authority to make such changes. But his comments Tuesday seemed designed more to encourage hard-line students to begin a pressure campaign on their own, thus forcing universities to oust the teachers.

Iran retired dozens of liberal university professors and teachers earlier this year. 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, despite protests by students.

HT: Howie