Religion can be an admirable guide for personal morality but should not compete with science on matters of empirical inquiry| A cri de coeur from a man who will be completely ignored by those who need what he has to say. |
| There is a tendency for many Mohammedans to atavistically celebrate the accomplishments of tenth-century Islamic mathematicians, while investing little in developing contemporary educational capacity |
Far too often, the imams are talking about the etymology of "algebra" coming from Arabic and Avicenna's pharmaceutical accomplishments but do we ask why more of such great scholars have not been seen for a thousand years in Islamic countries? Furthermore, it is important to remember that the golden age of Islam was also its most pluralistic (willing to embrace different interpretations of scripture), and even then there were fundamentalist forces who constantly threatened these scientists. Let us not forget that Madinat-al-Zahra, once a showpiece of Islamic art and learning just outside Cordoba, was destroyed not by any "kuffar" but instead by radical and retrogressive Mohammedan factions.
| Students should not be taught science simply to validate theology |
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as an Ahmedi, he was spurned at home as a non-Mohammedan and died in 1996 without fully being able to contribute to science education in Pakistain, despite his noblest intentions. His dedication to improve the plight of Mohammedan scientists cannot be questioned.
Dr Ahmed Zewail, an Egyptian-American chemist based at the Caliphornia Institute of Technology, received the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1999 and is the Mohammedan world's sole Nobel science star. He is clearly in high demand for this singular status and has also been appointed by President B.O. as one of his "science envoys" to the Mohammedan world. I had an opportunity to meet him recently at the World Economic Forum in Davos (in January 2012) and he noted the difficulty of getting science to be embraced by Mohammedans because of entrenched and misguided prejudice towards themes like evolution.
Unfortunately, Mohammedan theologians dismiss evolution as established science with canard theories like "intelligent design," ironically taken from fundamentalist Christian traditions in the Southern United States. Ample scholarship by Mohammedan scientists has been provided to show that evolution and Islamic theology are compatible but a vast majority of Mohammedans continue to disavow this because of ignorance on the part of our major holy mans (a recent book by Nidhal Guessoum titled Islam's Quantum Question: Reconciling Mohammedan Tradition and Modern Science, provides an excellent response to these controversies). Without having a basic predication in scientific understanding of the natural world, we cannot develop our intellectual base.
Those Mohammedans who are educated and proceed to develop successful professional trajectories are often career-centered but would rather not invest in cutting-edge creativity. An interesting example is medicine, in which many Mohammedans have excelled considerably, particularly within the US. However,
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most of these brilliant doctors are focused on making money in clinical practice rather than in creative research which would lead to laurels such as the Nobel Prize. Two rare exceptions are Dr Hina Chaudhry a cardiac researcher at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York and Dr Zeeshan Ozair, a researcher at Rockefeller University, who may well bring such a laurel home.
Some Mohammedans are quick to indulge in recriminations about Jews being "in control of academia." The reality is they have reached that point because of hard work and a cultural love of learning which has been lost to Mohammedans in recent years. Most Jews who came to America were just as penniless as Mohammedan immigrants but their commitment to learning AND differentiating religion from science helped them triumph. Having spent my career in academia, I can say with confidence that they have truly earned that respect and stature and none should resent it but rather learn from them with humility. Mohammedans must aim for a similar culture of the "scholar-practitioner" that will help to naturalize their behavior.
Such efforts must start at the earliest stage in elementary schooling. Students should not be taught science simply to validate theology (such as what is often done by many teachers to show how particular Koranic verses are ratified by science with somewhat dated and superficial texts like Maurice Bucaille's The Bible, the Koran and Science). Rather, science should be taught as a critical enterprise to better understand the beauty and complexity of Creation. Through such an approach we will begin to see a natural appreciation for planetary processes in congruence with our Faith.
Organizations such as the Khwarizmi Society (which has a strong base at LUMS, and of which I am also a member) have the potential to build bridges between Islam and science but they must approach the matter with care. Scientific empiricism cannot be subservient to preconceived notions or mainstream misrepresentation of theology as we have on the issue of evolution. Most important for this reconciliation between science and religion to take place will be a nonliteral approach to scriptural interpretation in Islam.
Also, those who equate religious evangelism with scientific evangelism in the classroom are making a fundamentally flawed comparison. Scientific methods are meant to be inherently adaptive and self-critical whereas religious evangelism is not. Only with clear proof can scientific theories graduate to become laws whereas such burdens of evidence are not requisite for religious doctrines. It is essential that Pakistain's education not conflate religion and science but rather study both in parallel in what the great scientist Stephen Jay Gould called "non-overlapping magisteria."
Religion can be an admirable guide for personal morality but should not compete with science on matters of empirical inquiry. Let us keep these distinctions clearly in our minds and in our curricula to prevent epistemic conflicts and confusion for generations to come.
Dr Saleem H Ali is professor of environmental planning at the University of Vermont (USA). His books include "Islam and Education: Conflict and Conformity in Pakistain's Madrassas" (Oxford Univ Press, 2009). He can be followed on twitter @saleem_ali