Mehdi Golshani

Mehdi Golshani (Persian: مهدی گلشنی, born 1939 in Isfahan, Iran) is a contemporary Iranian theoretical physicist and philosopher and Professor of physics at Sharif University of Technology. He received his B.Sc. in Physics from Tehran University in 1959 and his Ph.D. in Physics with a specialization in particle physics in 1969 from the University of California, Berkeley. The title of his doctoral dissertation is "Electron impact excitation of heavily ionized atoms".

Life

Career

Mehdi Golshani is a distinguished lecturer. His main research areas include foundational physics, particle physics, physical cosmology and philosophical implications of quantum mechanics. He is known as a thinker for his writings on science, religion and their interrelation.

Golshani is the founder and chairman of the Faculty of Philosophy of Science at Sharif University of Technology. He is also the director of Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran, and a Professor at Physics Department of Sharif University of Technology, as well as a Senior Fellow of School of Physics at Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics (IPM).

Muslim world

The term Muslim world, also known as Islamic world and the Ummah (Arabic: أمة‎, meaning "nation" or "community") has different meanings. In a religious sense, the Islamic Ummah refers to those who adhere to the teachings of Islam, referred to as Muslims. In a cultural sense, the Muslim Ummah refers to Islamic civilization, exclusive of non-Muslims living in that civilization. In a modern geopolitical sense, the term "Islamic Nation" usually refers collectively to Muslim-majority countries, states, districts, or towns.

Although Islamic lifestyles emphasise unity and defence of fellow Muslims, schools and branches (see Shia–Sunni relations, for example) exist. In the past both Pan-Islamism and nationalist currents have influenced the status of the Muslim world.

As of 2010, over 1.6 billion or about 23.4% of the world population are Muslims. By the percentage of the total population in a region considering themselves Muslim, 24.8% in Asia-Oceania do, 91.2% in the Middle East-North Africa, 29.6% in Sub-Saharan Africa, around 6.0% in Europe, and 0.6% in the Americas.

Hesham Tillawi

Hesham Tillawi is a Palestinian-American writer, TV talk show host, and political analyst living in Lafayette, Louisiana. He holds a doctoral degree in international relations from Bernelli University (formerly Berne University). He was elected vice president of the national executive committee of the Palestinian American Congress in 2004.

Tillawi's weekly two-hour television show, "Current Issues", began to be carried by Bridges TV, a Muslim television network, in late 2005. Tillawi used the show to vocalize criticism against Israel's treatment of Arabs and Muslims. The Anti-Defamation League, however, said his show was "a megaphone for Holocaust deniers and white supremacists seeking to broadcast their hatred and anti-Semitism into American homes" with a "who's who" of notable American antisemites including David Duke, Willis Carto, Edgar J. Steele, Mark Weber, Kevin B. MacDonald and Bradley Smith.

After a 2006 episode in which he interviewed Lyndon LaRouche, Tillawi said he got phone calls and e-mails protesting LaRouche's appearance on the show. Tillawi defended his decision to have LaRouche as a guest, saying that people had to hear what LaRouche has to say and make their own judgment.

Cultural Revolution

The Cultural Revolution, formally the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a social-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 until 1976. Set into motion by Mao Zedong, then Chairman of the Communist Party of China, its stated goal was to preserve 'true' Communist ideology in the country by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society, and to re-impose Maoist thought as the dominant ideology within the Party. The Revolution marked the return of Mao Zedong to a position of power after the Great Leap Forward. The movement paralyzed China politically and significantly affected the country economically and socially.

The Revolution was launched in May 1966, after Mao alleged that bourgeois elements had infiltrated the government and society at large, aiming to restore capitalism. He insisted that these "revisionists" be removed through violent class struggle. China's youth responded to Mao's appeal by forming Red Guard groups around the country. The movement spread into the military, urban workers, and the Communist Party leadership itself. It resulted in widespread factional struggles in all walks of life. In the top leadership, it led to a mass purge of senior officials, most notably Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping. During the same period Mao's personality cult grew to immense proportions.