Acquiring knowledge from other people does not mean that we should remain their students forever. This is not what it means. What it means is that we are their students today and we will be their teachers tomorrow, as they were our students one day and are our teachers today. Westerners acquired knowledge from us. You should take a look at the book "The History of Science" written by Pierre Rousseau. In this book he says, "Around four, five centuries ago, a merchant pays a visit to a professor in a European country. The merchant says, ‘I want my child to go to school. Which school should I send him to?' The professor responds, ‘If you are satisfied with the four basic operations - addition, multiplication, subtraction and division - you can send him to any school in our country or any school in other European countries. But if you want your son to learn something beyond that, you should send him to Andalusia or to Islamic regions.'"
This is what Pierre Rousseau writes. This is not what I say. The Crusades helped them learn from us. The immigration of their scholars to Islamic regions helped them learn from us. The immigration of our scholars to western territories and the transfer of our books to their countries helped them learn from us. One day, they were learning from us and they were our students. Later on, they became our teachers. In the present time, we are learning from them and we are their students. But later on, we will be their teachers. Therefore, the research-oriented generation of our country should know that if westerners are superior to us in scientific areas, we can do something to make them learn from us in a not too distant future and this can be done with your diligence and determination.
Ayatollah Khamenei, 07/07/2004
