Blue Initiative Open Letter to the Islamic 
President, Mr. Mohammad Khatami

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Blue Initiative • 1151 Massachusetts Avenue • Cambridge, MA 02138 • info@blueinitiative.com

Please Circulate This Letter As Widely As Possible

January 1, 2000

Dear President Khatami,

In light of your invitation for a dialogue among civilizations, a dialogue informed by a spirit of good will and mutual respect between the People of the United States and the People of Iran, we would like to express our deep appreciation for the academic, intellectual, scientific and literary achievements of the Iranian people, both inside Iran and at universities, corporations, and institutions in the United States.

As university presidents, professors, and educators, we recognize and celebrate the depth of the historic bonds of friendship between our peoples, bonds formed out of the Iranian and American peoples' passion for the advancement of knowledge, dedication to the service of humankind, and devotion to the celebration of the divine gift of life. The deeper principles that have made education central to the development and progress of our nations reflect the genius and generosity of our peoples. Such qualities of the mind and the heart are not only evident in the classics of our civilizations, but they are also indicative of the creative potential and promise of all of our students.

Although our mission is far from complete, the university is where we seek to translate our ideals into conduct and practices that reflect our noblest aspirations and intentions. We strive to create a learning environment where students can benefit from the wealth of ideas, resources, challenges, and opportunities generated by our civilization, as well as other great civilizations.

All our students, including young men and women of Iranian origin, are encouraged to explore, express, and exchange ideas about themselves and the world without fear of discrimination, retaliation or persecution based on their racial and ethnic origins, political or religious beliefs, economic status, sexual orientation, or physical limitations. Our success as a civilization depends on our ability to protect and promote the welfare of students and faculty in the classrooms, laboratories, dormitories, and playing fields of the university.

It is in this light that we wish to express our deep concern over the storming of a student dormitory at Tehran University on the night of Thursday July 8th, 1999 and the subsequent arrest and detention of hundreds of students on charges of violating public order and national security. We are alarmed about reports of imprisonment, torture, secret trials, televised confessions, and calls for the execution of student leaders, all in violation of the legal and ethical principles enshrined in the Iranian Constitution and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Extra-legal and unilateral acts of violence and transgression undermine respect for religion, civil society, and the rule of law. We believe that such assaults upon Iranian students and universities imperil Iranian civilization--its past as well as its future--and urge you and the Iranian people to take every reasonable step to condemn and punish any person or party, including members of the security forces and judiciary, who threatens the life, liberty, and property of students and faculty inside or around any university campus.

We believe that threats of violence and the use of force against students and scholars constitute a grave hazard to a remarkable civilization that has produced some of the world's finest poets, theologians, scientists and artists and urge our friends inside Iran and in the international community to protect the spiritual and intellectual reservoirs of faith and freedom that have been the sources of your civilization's flowering.

No matter what the political interests, religious differences, and cultural tensions separating our governments, the good will and friendly relations between the people of Iran and of the United States allow us to transcend and transform the politics of hatred and violence.

We wish to express our solidarity and support for the students and faculty of Iranian universities, and we look forward to opportunities for greater academic cooperation, further dialogue, and new friendships between Iranian and American educators, scholars, and students.

Leila Ahmed
Professor of Women’s Studies in Religion,
The Divinity School Harvard University

Kenneth Anderson
Washington College of Law
American University

George Andreopoulos
Professor,John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY

K. Anthony Appiah
Professor of Afro-American Studies and Philosophy
Harvard University

David Baltimore
President
California Institute of Technology

Louis B. Barnes
John D. Black Professorship Emeritus, Harvard Business School

Saul Bellow
Boston University

Robert M. Berdahl
Chancellor
University of California, Berkeley

Paul Berg
Professor, Stanford University

Peter Berger
Director, Institute for the Study of Economic Culture
Boston University

Hans A. Bethe
Professor Emeritus
Cornell University

Dr. Günter Blobel
Professor of Cell Biology
The Rockefeller University

Carolyn Patty Blum
Director, International Human Rights Program
Boalt Hall Law School
University of California, Berkeley

Derek Bok
University Professor
Harvard University

William M. Chace
President
Emory University

Noam Chomsky
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Richard Pierre Claude
Emeritus Professor of Government and Politics
University of Maryland
Founding Editor, Human Rights Quarterly

Juan R. I. Cole
Professor, Department of History
University of Michigan

David Dapice
Professor, Tufts University

Robert Darnton
Professor, Department of History
Princeton University

Angela Y. Davis
University of California, Santa Cruz

Natalie Zemon Davis
Henry Charles Lea Professor of History Emeritus
Princeton University

Daniel Dennett
Director, Center for Cognitive Studies
Tufts University

Jack Donnelly
University of Denver

Tom J. Farer
Dean of the Graduate School of International Studies
University of Denver

Val L. Fitch
Princeton University

Jerome I. Friedman
Professor of Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Harvard University

Tom Gerety
Amherst College

Michael Geyer
University of Chicago

Sol Gittleman
Professor, Tufts University

Hanna H. Gray
University of Chicago

Hurst Hannum
Professor, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
Tufts University

Gilbert Harman
Stuart Professor of Philosophy
Princeton University

J. Brian Hehir
Professor, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs
Harvard University

Louis Henkin
University Professor Emeritus
Columbia University

Judith Herman
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry Harvard Medical School

Patrice Higonnet
Harvard University

Stanley Hoffmann
Buttenwieser University Professor Harvard University

A.E. Dick Howard
White Burkett Miller Professor of Law and Public Affairs
University of Virginia

Thomas H. Kean
President, Drew University

Paul Kennedy
Yale University

Nannerl O. Keohane
President, Duke University

Daniel J. Kevles
California Institute of Technology

Rashid Khalidi
University of Chicago

Robert H. Kirschner, M.D.
Departments of Pathology and Pediatrics and
Faculty Committee of the Human Rights Program
University of Chicago

Robert Jay Lifton, M.D
Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry
The City University of New York at The John Jay College of Criminal Law
and The Graduate School

Charles Lindholm
Boston University

Kanan Makiya
Writer, Director of the Iraq Research and Documentation Project
Harvard University

Beatrice F. Manz
Professor of History
Tufts University

David A. Martin
Doherty Professor of Law
University of Virginia

J. Paul Martin
Executive Director, Center for the Study of Human Rights
Columbia University

Carolyn Marvin
University of Pennsylvania

Herbert Mason
University Professor
Boston University

Everett Mendelsohn
Professor of the History of Science
Harvard University

William Miller
Professor of Law
University of Michigan

Timothy Mitchell
Professor, Director of Center for Near Eastern Studies
New York University

Daniel Mulholland
Professor, Tufts University

Makao Mutua
Professor and Director
Human Rights Center
State University of New York
Buffalo Law School

Victor Navasky
Delacorte Professor of Magazine Journalism Columbia University

Joseph Nye
Harvard University

Douglas D. Osheroff
Professor of Physics
Stanford University

Julie Stone Peters
Columbia University

Otto Piene
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Robert Pinsky
Boston University

Mitchel Resnick
MIT Media Lab

Naomi Roht-Arriaza
Professor of Law
University of California
Hastings College of Law

Peter Rosenblum
Associate Director
Human Rights Program
Harvard Law School

Alfred P. Rubin
Distinguished Professor of Public International Law
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University

Neil L. Rudenstine
Harvard University

George Rupp
Columbia University

Edward W. Said
University Professor
Columbia University

Jeswald Salacuse
Henry J. Braker Professor of Law
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University

Oscar Schachter
Professor Emeritus
Columbia University
Orville Schell
Dean, Graduate School of Journalism
University of California, Berkeley

Stephen Schlesinger
Director, The World Policy Institute
The New School University

Martin Sherwin
Walter S. Dickson Professor of History, Tufts University

Dr. John Silber
Chancellor of Boston University

James J. Silk
Executive Director
Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights
Yale University

Eugene B. Skolnikoff
Professor of Political Science Emeritus, MIT

Tony Smith
Jackson Professor of Political Science, Tufts University

Ervin Staub
Professor of Pyschology
University of Massachusetts Amherst

Henry J. Steiner
Professor, Director, Human Rights Program, Harvard Law School

Eric Stover
School of Public Health
University of California, Berkeley

Sherman Teichman
Director, Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship
(EPIIC), and Director Institute for Global Leadership, Tufts University

Seymour Topping
Sanpaolo Professor of International Journalism, Columbia University

Daniel C. Tosteson
Dean Emeritus
Harvard Medical School

Laurence H. Tribe
Tyler Professor of Constitutional Law Harvard University Law School

Daniel C. Tsui
Professor of Electrical Engineering
Princeton University

Joseph Turow
Robert Lewis Shayon Professor of Communication
Annenberg School for Communication
University of Pennsylvania

Richard H. Ullman
Professor of International Affairs
Princeton University

Charles Vest
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Steven Weinberg
University of Texas at Austin

Cornell West
Harvard University

Jon Westling
President
Boston University

Elie Wiesel
Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities
Boston University

Torsten N. Wiesel
President Emeritus
The Rockefeller University

E.O. Wilson
University Research Professor
Harvard University

Morton Winston
Professor of Philosophy
College of New Jersey

James Wright
President
Dartmouth College

Philip Zelikow
Director of the Miller Center for Public Affairs
and White Burkett Miller Professor of History
University of Virginia