With the beginning of the renaissance and the spread of humanist ideas in Europe, the concept of the university also changed. The general orientation of the university turned from religious sciences such as theology to sciences that played an active role in everyday life such as law, grammar, astronomy, and politics. Ever since the middle of the 15th century, humanistic beliefs and new philosophy spread in European universities and gradually became the dominant belief in these scientific circles. In the 17th and 18th centuries and at the peak of the Age of Enlightenment, European thinkers and university professors undertook a rather bold mission, which was to define and determine the moral boundaries for human life without using religious frameworks. The great claim of secular humanism throughout history has been the ability of solving all human problems by relying solely on human wisdom, scientific progress, and not needing religious laws for the prosperity of human societies. During these several hundred years, scientists and university professors all over the world have depicted different utopias and proposed many ways to reach them by focusing on human learning and thinking. A look at the current state of the world leaves no doubt that the two following claims are true:
1. Science has had an unprecedented growth.
2. The current state of the world is not even close to the utopias that some had in mind.
The question that comes to mind is that why this broad scientific progress in the world has not been able to bring the promised paradise on earth to humans? Why does the material well-being of some countries have come only at the cost of the destruction and backwardness of many other nations? Why are there still class differences and poverty in these same usurping countries?
Perhaps the best recent example to explain the contradiction between the goals of Western science and the current state of the world is the Gaza issue. The institution of science in the West, i.e. the university, has always tried to show itself as independent from the powers, unlike the institutions of religious education. A few protests limited to the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza were enough for prominent Western universities to start firing and suspending professors and students who asked for the minimum request, that being a ceasefire in Gaza. These actions were clearly carried out to support the Zionist regime and its goals in the invasion of Gaza.
One of the branches of humanities, that is, the science of law, has been taught and completed in universities around the world for years. In the international arena, this science also sees itself in the position of defending the nations that are attacked. International institutions such as The Hague International Court, the United Nations, etc. have been established to implement and complete these laws. The inability of these institutions to stop the genocide of the Zionists in Gaza brought the ineffectiveness of these laws and their ostentatious nature to the eyes of the world even more. It took several months for a case against the Zionist regime to reach a conclusion at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and the result was also very disappointing. In the United Nations Security Council, the repeated US vetoes have made the attempt to stop a full-scale Zionist genocidal crime a joke. Only after the ceasefire resolution was approved, no action was taken to stop the attacks of the Zionist regime on the people of Gaza.
Another branch of science is engineering science, which has tried for centuries to harness the power of nature and put it at human disposal, and the progress of the West in this field cannot be denied. These sciences gave humans the ability to travel very long distances in very little time, fly in the sky, and use the power inside the elements. Utilizing them, the West delivers a large amount of weapons to the Zionist regime in a very short time from America and Europe, using fighter planes to carpet bomb the neighborhoods of Gaza and using heavy bombs to destroy houses, hospitals, and universities in a blink of an eye. Perhaps the bombing of Gaza universities with bombs produced by American university graduates is the most telling illustration of the contradiction in Western science with its goals.
Imam Khamenei said in a meeting with students on April 7, 2024:
If we want to define a university, the main pillar of the definition of a university is science, knowledge. The university has three main tasks. First, it should educate scholars, secondly, it should produce science, and thirdly, university should direct the education of scholars and the production of science. The universities of the world educate scientists, they also produce science, but they are experiencing problems with the third duty worldwide, which involves directing the education of scholars and the production of science. Because of this, their products become tools in the hands of the Arrogant and Zionist Powers.
The separation of the institution of science in the West from the religious moral frameworks has caused this institution to become a tool in the hands of those with power and capital around the world. Perhaps Gaza can make the West to reconsider the path that the university has taken in the last four centuries.
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