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Excerpts of newly-elected President Hassan Rowhani’s Phd thesis, ‘The flexibility of Sharia with reference to the Iranian experience’, match sentences of a book written by an Iranian author, The Telegraph reported citing activists.
Parts of a book by Mohamad Hashem Kamani, the chairman of Iran’s International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies, appear in Rowhani’s Glasgow Caledonian University thesis, London-based writer Behdad Morshedi said.
“Mr. Kamali is closely associated with the regime but his book was published in his own name and the extracts are virtually identical,” said Morshedi, which is a pen name. “We will be submitting a petition calling on the university to cancel the PhD.”
A university spokesman confirmed that the school had received the same accusation from another activist in the United States, adding that the university will be looking into the issue.
According to The Telegraph, the 500-page thesis contains two passages in the short excerpt that have come under scrutiny.
According to some reports, Rowhani may have earned his Scottish qualifications in absentia, as his education coincided with his tenure as secretary of Iran’s national security council, a post which he held from 1989 to 2005.
Rowhani is to be inaugurated on August 4.
Source: Al Arabiya
