By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

 

“Seek knowledge from cradle to the grave” is one of the famous instructions of the Messenger of Mercy, Prophet Muhammad (SAWA), and this was among the main factors that transformed Muslims within a short period to torchbearers of science and civilization, which in turn delivered Europe from ages of darkness, resulting in the birth of Renaissance.

Unfortunately, the Western colonial powers which owe their progress to the industrial revolution that followed, instead of facilitating the spread of education have exploited knowledge to impose their cultural/political/economic hegemony on the modern world and misused science and technology for destructive purposes.

President Hojjat al-Islam Seyyed Ibrahim Raisi, who on landing in New York on Monday for the 77th UN General Assembly, straightaway went to the World Body’s headquarters to address the closing session of the 3-day“Transforming Education Summit”, and outlined the Islamic Republic of Iran’s viewpoints in this field.

He said Western regimes have impeded the growth and progress of other countries through their culture of domination by exploiting international entities to their own benefit and drawing up dubious schemes to impose their own cultural and intellectual views at the expense of the time-tested values of other cultures, especially Islamic, thereby creating an unfair world order.

“Cultural domination and confinement of knowledge are the worst kinds of oppression and injustice,” Raisi rightly remarked, and urging respect for the cultural and educational independence of other countries, he said: “it is not possible to transform the education system without taking into account values such as family, equality, and spirituality, since development that lacks religious values and morality won’t last long and will result in societal collapse.”

He went on to shed light on the history of Iran’s civilization which began with science and knowledge, saying: “The Islamic culture elevated it and established its pillars on heavenly values.” 

The Iranian President criticized the United Nations’ 2030 agenda for so-called ‘Sustainable Development’, pointing out that its approaches are one-dimensional and laic, and saying the Islamic Republic has drawn up its own educational agenda based on Iranian-Islamic principles.

Iran has taken giant strides in the field of education since the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, focusing on moral values, including protecting the environment, and campaigning against violence and extremism.

In contrast to the unbridled indecency and freewheeling falsities of the West’s social media networks, Iran also promotes internet safety and encourages healthy online habits as among the priorities for transforming education. 

The Islamic Republic which has mastered the nuclear fuel cycle for peaceful purposes, unlike the diabolical attitude of the dangerously nuclear-armed US and other countries possessing weapons of mass destruction (that Islam religiously forbids), has established a thriving educational system  based on research, creativity, professional training and adherence to cultural and religious values.