Tehran to host ‘Global Coalition against Scientific Apartheid’ conference

 

TEHRAN – The University of Tehran plays host to a conference titled ‘Global Coalition against Scientific Apartheid’ with the aim of promoting peace, justice, security, and health in the world.

The event was held on the occasion of ‘World Science Day for Peace and Development’, which is marked annually on November 10, ISNA reported.

The main themes of the conference include "Scientific justice, international law, and sanctions", "Scientific apartheid and legal strategies to deal with it", "Examples of scientific apartheid in the world", "Apartheid and scientific justice in the world", "Science and technology in the service of peace", "Scientific apartheid; peace, justice, security and global health" and "Scientific apartheid, oppressive system, and oppressed nations".

The University of Tehran, the Majlis (Iranian parliament), the Secretariat of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Commission of UNESCO in Iran, the Secretariat of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly, the Islamic Azad University, and the World Islamic Peace Forum are among the sponsors of the conference.

World Science Day for Peace and Development

The World Science Day for Peace and Development aims to strengthen public awareness of the role of science in peaceful and sustainable societies; promote national and international solidarity for shared science between countries; renew national and international commitment to the use of science for the benefit of societies; draw attention to the challenges faced by science in raising support for the scientific endeavor.

By linking science more closely with society, the Day aims to ensure that citizens are kept informed of developments in science. It also underscores the role scientists play in broadening our understanding of the remarkable, fragile planet we call home and in making our societies more sustainable.

It also offers the opportunity to mobilize all actors around the topic of science for peace and development – from government officials to the media to school pupils. UNESCO strongly encourages all to join in celebrating World Science Day for Peace and Development by organizing their own event or activity on the day.

In this regard, Science Promotion Week’ is celebrated in Iran from November 11 to 16 by holding various programs, IRNA reported.

Introducing science recounts of natural phenomena, plant, and animal species in each climate, along with recounts on regional traditions and customs; the coexistence of man and nature; and efforts of local communities to deal with environmental problems are parts of the festival.

It coincided with the beginning of the ninth festival of ‘Science for All’ which kicked off virtually on November 11 under the theme of "Biological-Cultural Diversity

 

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The text of speech by Prof. Seyed Mohammad Marandi, President of University of Tehran 

 

Prof. Seyed Mohammad Moghimi, President of University of Tehran, on Sunday, November 12, at the "Global Coalition Against Scientific Apartheid for Peace, Justice, Security and Global Health" conference, which was held in the Shahid Soleimani Hall of the UT's Presidency and Public Relations Center, put forth  this question "Has the science that we are talking about in the international arena today has been able to provide the necessary platform for the realization of justice and peace or not?", and further stated: The purpose of science is to create knowledge in man and through this knowledge to be able to discover the truth and this truth will lead us to a direction that promotes moral and social virtues in the society and establishes elements such as justice and peace and improves the quality of human life.

Saying that "Science is not just for science's sake," the president of University of Tehran  added: "The goal of science is to lead to the well-being and comfort of mankind, and this well-being and comfort is in both material and spiritual fields." Despite the fact that we are witnessing the growth of the material and technological manifestations of science in the world and the scientific leap and the creation of various technologies in recent decades and years cannot be compared with the length of human history, and the further we go, the speed of technological growth and scientific innovations that the efforts and efforts of thinkers  has been able to bring relative material well-being to mankind, but the quality of human life has not been improved in terms of material and spiritual aspects, and science has not been able to promote peace and justice in the field of international relations compared to the past.

The professor of UT College of Management continued: There is a consensus that despite scientific and technological development, human virtues and quality of life, human peace and justice are not necessarily guaranteed, and at least to the extent of what we have experienced in the past years, even worse has happened, in such a way that we are witnessing the depth of injustice and belligerence as a component against peace in Gaza. Therefore, science, whose goal was to create peace, justice and improve human security, has not been able to realize this.

He pointed to the history of the formation of scientific apartheid as one of the branches of political and social apartheid that started with racial discrimination and said: In scientific apartheid, we are talking about discrimination. The possibility of benefiting from the technological achievements offered in the western world is not available to all countries in the world, and our beloved country has been at the center of these sanctions for more than four decades.

The president of University of Tehran, stating another example of scientific apartheid, stated: There are Iranian professors who have submitted articles to international prestigious journals, especially in the field of humanities, social and behavioral sciences, and the articles were immediately rejected without judging and simply because they  belonged to an Iranian or its topic is Islamic, it was not even  reviewed. This is only one aspect of discrimination and a small part of this scientific apartheid.

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Prof.  Moghimi went on to explain the underlying layers of scientific apartheid and said: In the discussion of scientific apartheid in the world arena, we are facing two topics: "scientific self-sanction" and "scientific other-sanction". Another scientific embargo means that the Western world and the United States of America, which is a symbol of arrogance, are trying to prevent us from accessing the up-to-date contents of the world's science; Whether this content is science or whether this science has been transformed into modern technology and the practical aspects of science.

He considered the fundamental aspects of scientific apartheid, especially in relation to self-sanctions, to have broader and deeper dimensions than the practical aspects and pointed out: the behaviors we are witnessing in the western world in the contemporary period show that the West has even suffered self-sanctions in the discussion of scientific apartheid. and the scientific and academic community has deprived itself of some important findings for the promotion of human virtues and the quality of human life, and specifically components such as justice and world peace.

Prof. Moghimi pointed out the dominance of positivist and pragmatism approaches in Western science and stated: The examination of these approaches shows that basically Westerners only believe in sensory and experimental tools to discover facts and truths, and do not consider  metaphysical and transcendental issues as science  and call them with inappropriate words; In such a way that in the Western world, metaphysical and transcendental topics such as spiritual topics, love for the Almighty God and the origin of existence are considered meaningless from a cognitive point of view, and they say that these topics can only be considered from an emotional point of view. This is the point where we see a deep gap between Islamic thinking and the western approach to science.

The president of University of Tehran , emphasizing that today's mankind is in dire need of true science for the real promotion of justice and peace, stated: The stigma that Westerners put on indigenous studies in Islamic countries and these studies that pay attention to metaphysics and transcendental matters, consider as pseudo-science, and in fact they attribute their own faults to others; Because the science they have is actually pseudo-science; Because if science was real, it should have been achieved with these scientific advances, human happiness in this world and the hereafter should have been guaranteed, and security, justice, and peace in the world should have been in their most desirable state.

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As a rule, this science has defects that the optimal conditions have not been achieved. So it turns out that human beings need other things to be able to reach the truth of peace and justice through the creation of scientific knowledge. But we continue to witness that not only Westerners have not changed their path of ontology, epistemology and anthropology, but they have suffered self-imposed sanctions and do not allow scientific topics which are the real needs of human life to enter into their university discussions and therefore call metaphysical topics pseudo-science. And they completely ignore transcendence, goodness and human expediency.

He added: World science has a treasury called databases, and countries should take advantage of this treasury while creating added value for it, so that ultimately the science produced can lead us to real world justice and peace. In this atmosphere of scientific apartheid, the emergence of real science based on both material and spiritual fields  can serve peace and real justice is not allowed, and due to the application of scientific apartheid, non-sensual and non-empirical sciences are able to compete with rival theories and theories. They do not have their own, and permission to publish them is not easily provided.

In such a scientific environment, which is an inflamed environment and Islamic thinkers are not allowed to move and maneuver, we should try to explain the metaphysical aspects of science in the world that strengthen spirituality, ethics by using different methods based on Islamic ontology, epistemology and anthropology, ethics and immaterial dimensions of human life.

Prof. Moghimi stated that in the discussion of scientific apartheid, we have problems both in the issue of science applications and in the issue of establishing scientific foundations; He pointed out: Many times in scientific apartheid, we focus on the fact that Westerners do not provide us with modern technologies, and we summarize scientific apartheid to that, but we pay less attention to its bottom layer, i.e. discussions related to scientific apartheid in the basic part of science. We have seen many times in scientific interactions that it is not easy to allow the emergence and publication of theories based on non-positivist epistemology that can provide real human happiness and peace and justice in a real way.

Therefore, we must try to remove the conditions of self-sanctions and other sanctions that have prevailed in the scientific system of the West, and benefit from the practical and technological aspects of science, and more importantly, the publication and promotion of basic theories based on human nature, which have faced limitations in the form of scientific apartheid and expand the activity of independent scientific databases and effective media through the creation of scientific unions.

The president of University of Tehran emphasized: We must create different tribunes so that we can solve the basic aspects of scientific apartheid and provide the necessary platforms for professors, scholars and scientists to use this tribune. With the platform of Westerners and their databases, it is not possible to stand up against scientific apartheid; Because they are the ones who, in their forums, decide on the criteria of what articles and what information will be registered in their scientific databases and which audience will have access to this information and technology.

 

Of course, in the fields of engineering, despite the great limitation we have in accessing their information and technology, there is not much problem in the field of publishing scientific articles and documents of Iranian and Muslim scientists and researchers, because the semantic and metaphysical burden of technical and engineering subjects is not very strong. or it is zero. They have a problem with us that is related to scientific works in the fields of humanities, social and behavioral sciences, and with this mechanism and course that is currently ruling the world, we cannot easily break the scientific apartheid; Unless the countries that really understand the conditions of this scientific apartheid and are affected by these conditions, try to create the necessary platforms.

In his closing remarks, Prof. Moghimi stated: Today, science in the Western world is not mainly a matter of discovering the truth, but science is a tool of power and the exercise of power, and Westerners are trying to put science at the service of the powerful, and this is no longer necessary. There is no example around the world, we can easily find various examples where arrogant powers have tried to use science for their own interests and to colonize others, using the tools at their disposal. From the point of view of Westerners, science with their assumptions is the science of peace and justice, and if anyone wants to test their assumptions, they will be sanctioned.

French scientist Roger Garudi is one of the most prominent examples of scientific apartheid in this field, who was tried for the crime of researching and commenting on a historical event and the killing of Jews by the Nazis, and faced all kinds of sanctions and censorship. Therefore, through scientific apartheid, the domination system tries to limit the countries' access to the world's information and technology treasury through other sanctions, by applying self-sanctions policy, to deprive its thinkers and nation of information sources based on metaphysical approaches, so that the intellectual emanations of Muslim thinkers to their scientific and academic society should not spread, which is what mankind needs today to get rid of social problems.

This is despite the fact that in the brilliant period of Islamic civilization, various sciences flowed from the Islamic world to the Western world in line with the existence of a religious duty for individuals to spread knowledge based on the progressive teachings of Islam.

 

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Text of Speech by Prof. Elham Aminzadeh, the Vice President  for International Affairs,  University of Tehran

Prof. Elham Aminzadeh, the Vice President  for International Affairs,  University of Tehran, stated in this conference: It is always thought that discrimination is in the economic, political, and cultural fields, and discrimination is less talked about in the scientific field, but since In the global flow and international circulation of science, any kind of discrimination and apartheid leads to the tension and anger of nations, scientific apartheid can also create a reaction in nations, so it is necessary for the developed world to end apartheid and racial discrimination in order to prevent from endangering international peace and security.

Referring to the obstacles of publishing scientific articles, especially in the field of humanities and participating in scientific and technological conferences and exchanges, Vice President for International Affairs of Tehran University said: sometimes we see this discrimination and apartheid, but really in connection with this apartheid and this discrimination, should the Islamic Republic of Iran be stopped?

And is there a right for countries to discriminate and sanction the circulation of scientific resources?

The Adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs said: The Supreme Leader emphasized in 2016 that stopping Iran's scientific progress is the enemy's goal and one should be careful that in the name of joining the global family, the elements of this global family and the rules governing this family are all determined by the Westerners should not be the reproduction of the culture of dependence.

She added: This means that we should not play in the name of scientific interaction in a field whose elements and regulations have been defined by others who are not our friends.

In another part of her speech, the Vice  President  for International Affairs  at University of Tehran , referring to the growth of Iran's science production, said: "According to statistics, the speed of scientific progress in Iran at one point was 13 times of the world average, and this speed must be continued in order not to fall behind in science."

Prof. Aminzadeh pointed out: The Supreme Leader emphasized that the possibility of scientific progress and improvement of human and natural resources of Iran is not a myth and is a fact that the Westerners themselves acknowledge.

She added: Some people believe that because we love Iran, we talk about its scientific progress, but recently, in the international meetings that they attended in University of Tehran, they admitted that the scientific status of Iranian professors in the world rankings is very high.

The Vice President for International Affairs at University of Tehran asked the question, what is the international duty of governments and international organizations? She said: After the United Nations Charter and the 1966 Human Rights Covenants, the documents of the international organization UNESCO contain the right of education and the obligation of governments for fair scientific exchanges. This means that if we ever want to be punished to get our rights in this field, we must mention these documents step by step in this indictment.

She added: The first agreement within the framework of the UNESCO international organization was published in 1948 under the title of Document Facilitating the International Flow of Audiovisual and Educational Materials of an Educational, Scientific and Cultural Nature, and this document shows that no one has the right to stop these exchanges.

The Vice President for International Affairs of University of  Tehran continued her explanation about the existing international documents for the freedom of international scientific publications and said: In June 1950, we have the document for the import of educational, scientific and cultural works, and the World Copyright Convention in 1952 and in 1958. The Convention on the Freedom of International Exchange of Publications was offered and also the document for the protection of cultural assets in armed conflicts was presented in 1999, but now we see that there are cultural and historical works in the Gaza region, especially the history of religions, which have been destroyed by the uncultured Zionist regime of these cultural reserves of the West Asia is being destroyed.

She added: It seems that one of the results of this conference is that the UNESCO organization becomes the public defender of these cultural elements.

The Vice President for International Affairs, at University of Tehran said: These bombs, which intelligently search for victims in the corridors of the hospital, must have been behind these calculations by a scientist who made such calculations, and such knowledge cannot be called science.

Prof. Aminzadeh, referring to the speech of the President of UT  about the necessity of redefining science, freedom and justice, said:

In the Islamic Republic, it has been emphasized that scientific apartheid must be fought, and our tools to fight it are scientific jihad, scientific diplomacy, and explanation jihad, and we have been successful in this field.

The Vice  President  for  International  Affairs, University of Tehran presented the statistics of the scientific achievements of the University of Tehran and said: These statistics show how during the 40 years of scientific apartheid against Iran, we were able to take over the UNESCO seats.

He stated: Out of 17 UNESCO seats in the country, 7 of them have been created in University of Tehran , including technical and engineering seats, water recycling, interdisciplinary research in diabetes, entrepreneurship, social health, culture and virtual space and the architecture chair .

Prof.  Aminzadeh added: 7 professors of UT are in charge of these chairs and the international organization UNESCO has recognized these people.

Pointing to his non-acceptance of Unesco to establish Chair of Clean Energies at University of Tehran as an example of scientific apartheid.

Vice President for International Affairs at University of Tehran also stated that the University of Tehran is trying to improve its international ranking in QS, Shanghai, Times and US News and the QS system from 250 to the rank of 232 and added: The university's rank is 360 in QS, 450 in Times, 401 in Shanghai, and 329 in US News.

She pointed out: The purpose of presenting these statistics is that I want to state that we have not stopped and we are not stopping, and we are moving forward, and the determination of the scientific community of the country is to neutralize scientific apartheid and take steps towards the promotion of science and knowledge, ethics and peace and  security .