Iran’s state-owned Press TV reported that Iran’s Shiraz University “as a gesture of solidarity” will offer scholarships to any student suspended for anti-Israel, pro-Hamas protests on U.S. campuses.
This is not Babylon Bee satire. Shiraz U made the offer. Will Cal Tech, Harvard, or UPenn students transfer from where free speech and protesting are defended to where they are punished? If so, they are in for an eye-opening experience. Then again, if your moral compass is Hamas, your eyes and values may need re-examining.
Only a few students in the protests could even articulate their cause. Most just faithfully held placards or chanted, “Free Palestine!” A minority defaced college property … to prevent genocide?
To students considering an Iranian degree, I say go. See extremism in action. Test your sensitivities. Here are three recommendations to guarantee a full radical extremist Iranian college experience:
1 — On the first day, wear your pride flag tee shirt, tell everyone you’re gender-fluid, and only answer to your preferred pronouns.
2 — Before going, verify that all your credits transfer for your Interstellar Lesbian Dance Theory degree.
3 — Buy your falafel-a-week meal plan in advance. The exchange rate is 49,990 rials to one U.S. dollar.
Here’s a crash course in Iranian society; you will need it: Female students must comply with Iran’s “decency law” instituted under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He decreed that women in public not covered by full-length gowns and hijabs were considered “naked.” The punishment for being uncovered is 74 lashes and 60 days in prison. Beatings are optional but common.
Iran’s “morality police” enforce the dress code. In 2022, they arrested and brutally beat 22-year-old Mahsa Amini for wearing an “improper hijab.” She died in their custody a few days later.
Witness photos show Amini wearing a hijab, but enforcers claim some hair was visible. NGO Iran Human Rights documented that Iranian forces killed over 130 people (mostly women) who protested Amini’s murder.
Unlike the West, Iran crushes dissent. “The government also often charged political dissidents with vague crimes, some of which carried the death penalty, such as ‘antirevolutionary behavior,’ ‘corruption on earth,’ ‘siding with global arrogance,’” said the State Department’s 2023 report on human rights in Iran.
I’m not seriously suggesting any student study in Iran. I do recommend a summer reading: Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Nearly thirty years ago, Harvard Professor and Carter administration member Dr. Samuel Huntington wrote that the world faced 1,000 years of dark ages if militant Jew-hating, Christian-hating and America-hating Islamic extremism multiplied.
Huntington suggested their ideologies would lead to a new civilization, not based on land, economics, or politics but on radical religious, murderous global aspirations. Sounds like the October massacre? It should. “From the river to the sea…” calls for Israel’s extinction.
Huntington predicted a fanatical, convert-or-die civilization. Can you say “infidel?” He saw a world where apocalyptic Islam replaced Christians, Jews, Buddhists, and even atheists. Decades of EU open borders, naïve Critical Theory professors, and more than $13 billion donated to U.S. universities from nations like Qatar fuel his predictions.
Students and legislators worldwide might benefit from a semester in Iran. If they survived, they would learn the Iranian people are not evil, just the regime.
The values that built our institutions could rescue them. English minister John Harvard founded Harvard University. Its original motto was “Truth for Christ and the Church.” While most people are not yet zealots of bombastic ideologies, they are expanding, and time is expiring on Huntington’s clock. Acknowledgment of objective reality and Jesus Christ is still the answer.
Dr. Alex McFarland is a youth, religion and culture expert, a national talk show host and speaker, educator, and author of 20 books. McFarland directs Biblical Worldview and apologetics for Charis Bible College in Woodland Park, CO. Via the American Family Radio Network, Alex is heard live on Exploring the Word, airing daily on nearly 200 radio stations across the U.S. As one of the weekly hosts of the Truth & Liberty Live Call-in Show, Alex discusses current events affecting our nation while taking callers’ questions. He is also the host of “The Alex McFarland Show,” which airs weekly on NRB TV.
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