Imam Khomeini's Educational and Research Institute
Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute (also Imam Khomeini’s Educational and Research Institute , Moassesseh-ye Amuzeshi va Pezhuheshi-ye Emam Khomeini) is a Shia Islamic religious educational institute in Qom, Iran. It was founded in 1991 by cleric Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi who is still the institute's director.[1]
The institute has been described by one source as being concerned with how Iran's Islamic government can adapt the fast-moving scientific and technological developments of the 21st century to its own needs, particularly by explaining scientific issues to leading Islamic religious scholars (marjas) and through these religious scholars bring the thinking of science to the masses of Muslims "so that Iranian scientists can operate on a par with other researchers anywhere in the world."[1]
Another source describes the institute as having been founded to counteract the challenge to and criticism of the clerical leadership of the Islamic government by intellectuals such as Abdolkarim Soroush.[2]
Some clergy at the institute reject the theory of evolution, but approve of other pursuits of science, such as sperm and embryo donation, cloning or surrogate motherhood, and Embryonic stem cell research.[1]
In keeping with the principle of separation of the sexes, women do not participate in classes inside the institute.[1]
The institute publishes the weekly periodical, Parto-Sokhan.[3]
Personalities
- Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi
- Mohammad Ali Shomali (head of the institute's religious department)[1]
- Muhammad Legenhausen American-born convert to Islam. Since 1992, he has been studying Islam and teaching Western philosophy and Christianity at the Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute in Iran.
Notes
Works cited
- ^ a b c d e Quarks and the Koran, by Maziar Bahari. May 23, 2009
- ^ (Gheissari, Ali, Democracy in Iran: history and the quest for liberty, Ali Gheissari, Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr, Oxford University Press, 2006, p.118)
- ^ Majd, Hooman, The Ayatollah Begs to Differ : The Paradox of Modern Iran, by Hooman Majd, Doubleday, 2008, p.46
External links
34°37′44″N 50°51′54″E / 34.6290°N 50.8650°E
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