Shabtabnews In this dark night, I have lost my way – Arise from a corner, oh you the star of guidance.
RFL/RE – Iran’s Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani has lashed out at President Hassan Rouhani for a recent speech in which he said the Iranian government’s attempts to Islamize sciences has failed, calling Rouhani’s argument “vulgar.”
In a February 24 speech at the Kharazmi Science Festival in Tehran, broadcast live on Iran’s state-run news channel IRINN, Rouhani said spending large amounts of money on religious institutions has contributed nothing to the development of the country.
Criticizing Iran’s hardliners for supporting the Islamization of universities, Rouhani said: “There is no Islamic mathematics, physics, or chemistry,” adding that “Putting a Koran in a car’s glove compartment will not make that an Islamic car.”
Rouhani called for separating science from ideology, as well as for scientific cooperation between Iran and the world. He said the heavy monetary investment in the Islamization of the sciences by the government has failed.
Religious hardliners maintain that the seminaries can provide for the country’s scientific needs in place of Western-style universities.
Following the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, hundreds of Islamic institutions were created with an aim to Islamize the sciences.
