Thread: Iran's Ahmadinejad Urges Purge of Secular Academics (Update1)

Iran's Ahmadinejad Urges Purge of Secular Academics (Update1)
2006-09-05 09:10 (New York)


(Adds ban on rights group and antenna removals in sixth,
seventh paragraphs.)

By Ladane Nasseri
Sept. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad said his government plans to purge liberal and
secular faculty members from Iran's universities in a bid to
revive the ideals of the Islamic Republic's heyday in the 1980s.
``Our academic system has been influenced for 150 years by
secularism,'' the official Islamic Republic News Agency cited
Ahmadinejad as telling a group of students today. ``We have
started to make change happen but we need special support for
it,'' he said.
``Students should shout at the president and ask why
liberal and secular university lecturers are present in the
universities,'' the president said.
Ahmadinejad, a founder of the student group that stormed
the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held 52 diplomats hostage
for 14 months, was elected in June 2005. His victory gave the
backers of the Islamic revolution power over all state
institutions. Since his election, Ahmadinejad has scrapped some
social and civil reforms inspired by his predecessor, Mohammad
Khatami.
Canadian-Iranian academic Ramin Jahanbegloo was released on
bail Aug. 30 after four months in prison in Tehran, where he is
awaiting trial on suspicion of acting against Iranian interests
and contacting foreigners. Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein
Mohseni Ejei accused Jahanbegloo of fomenting a ``velvet
revolution'' in the Islamic Republic on U.S. orders.
Last month, Iran banned any activity by a human rights
group headed by Nobel peace prizewinner Shirin Ebadi. The group
has involved itself in rights cases including those of
journalist Akbar Ganji, who was imprisoned for six years and
released in March, and photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who died in
detention in 2003.
The Iranian government also ordered a raid to remove
television satellite dishes from homes in Tehran, the capital,
saying they threaten the nation's ``psychological security.''
The dishes, tolerated under Khatami, have mushroomed in the past
decade. Music, news and talk programs by dissident Iranian
channels based abroad are the most popular of the foreign
broadcasts.
Iran refused to meet an Aug. 31 United Nations Security
Council deadline to suspend production of nuclear fuel, a stance
that may lead to sanctions. The U.S. and its allies accuse Iran
of using a nuclear-power program to disguise weapons
development.

--Editor: Nundy

Story illustration: See {TNI IRAN US BN <GO>} for more stories
about Iran and the U.S.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Ladane Nasseri in Tehran at (98) (21) 2281 9322 or
lnasseri@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Daniel Tilles at (44) (20) 7673-2649 or
dtilles@bloomberg.net;
Peter Torday at (44) (20) 7330 7539 or
ptorday@bloomberg.net.

#<625587.940942.1.0.7.4.25>#
-0- Sep/05/2006 13:10 GMT

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