Iran clerics to enter classrooms to combat western ‘arrogance’ and opposition this fall

Iran clerics to fight West influence in classrooms

TEHRAN, Iran — The Iranian government says it will send hundreds of clerics into Tehran’s schools this fall to fight Western influence and the domestic opposition.

Mohammed Boniadi, deputy director of the Tehran education department, says some 1,000 clerics will make students aware of “opposition plots and arrogance.”

Newspapers Sunday quoted him as saying that the clerics would act as “officers” in an ideological war.

Although Iran had pledged to install religious teachers in classrooms in the past, this appears to be the first concrete step in a wider drive to put more religion in education.

Deploying clerics in classrooms is widely seen as a reaction to last year’s disputed presidential elections in which many Iranian youth flocked to the opposition.