All over the world, no matter what the cultural or language differences, science is more or less guided by scientific principles—except in many Islamic countries, where it is guided by the Koran. This is the ultimate story about science and religion.
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The Islamic world looms large in the history of science, and there were long periods when Cairo—in Arabic, El Qahira, meaning “the victorious”—was a leading star in the Arabic universe of learning. Islam is in many ways more tolerant of scientific study than is Christian fundamentalism. It does not, for example, argue that the world is only 6,000 years old. Cloning research that does not involve people is becoming more widely accepted. In recent times, though, knowledge in Egypt has waned. And who is accountable for the decline?
El-Naggar has no doubts. “We are not behind because of Islam,” he says. “We are behind because of what the Americans and the British have done to us.”
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The influence and popularity of El-Naggar—as a frequent guest on Arab satellite television, he reaches an audience of millions—does not sit well with Gamal Soltan, a political scientist at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, a Cairo-based think tank.
“This tendency to use their knowledge of science to ‘prove’ that the religious interpretations of life are correct is really corrupting,” he tells me. Soltan, who got his doctorate at the University of Northern Illinois, works in a small office that’s pungent with tobacco smoke; journals and newspapers lie stacked on his desk and floor. “Their methodology is bad,” he says. Soltan explains that Islamic scientists start with a conclusion (the Koran says the body has 360 joints) and then work toward proving that conclusion. To reach the necessary answer they will, in this instance, count things that some orthopedists might not call a joint. “They’re sure about everything, about how the universe was created, who created it, and they just need to control nature rather than interpret it,” Soltan adds. “But the driving force behind any scientific pursuit is that the truth is still out there.”
Researchers who don’t agree with Islamic thinking “avoid questions or research agendas” that could put them in opposition to authorities—thus steering clear of intellectual debate. In other words, if you are a scientist who is not an Islamic extremist, you simply direct your work toward what is useful. Scientists who contradict the Koran “would have to keep a low profile.” When pressed for examples, Soltan does not elaborate.
What about, say, evolutionary biology or Darwinism? I ask. (Evolution is taught in Egyptian schools, although it is banned in Saudi Arabia and Sudan.) “If you are asking if Adam came from a monkey, no,” Badawy responds. “Man did not come from a monkey. If I am religious, if I agree with Islam, then I have to respect all of the ideas of Islam. And one of these ideas is the creation of the human from Adam and Eve. If I am a scientist, I have to believe that.”
But from the point of view of a scientist, is it not just a story? I ask. He tells me that if I were writing an article saying that Adam and Eve is a big lie, it will not be accepted until I can prove it.
“Nobody can just write what he thinks without proof. But we have real proof that the story of Adam as the first man is true.”
“What proof?”
He looks at me with disbelief: “It’s written in the Koran.”
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Sheikh Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, president of the Al-Iman University, has announced that he, with the help of a handful of scientists, has crafted a medicine formulated to cure HIV/AIDS patients.The news immediately provoked a flurry of controversy among regional and international health professionals, researchers, and academics, many of whom remain highly skeptical of al-Zindani’s claim.
Al-Zindani, who is the head of the Committee of Scientific Miracles of the Holy Quran, an affiliate of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, claimed that the research carried out by the Research Center at his Islamic school to treat HIV/AIDS carriers has born fruit. The announcement has been made repeatedly on a number of occasions; the most recent of which was during the celebration of the World AIDS Day, held in Sana’a University under the patronage of the Health Minister.
Many people were less than enthusiastic about al-Zindani’s announcement. Dr. Jamil al-Mughales, the head of the Clinical Immunology Services of King Abdul Aziz University, said that if he were the Minister of Health, he would put al-Zindani in jail. “Me and my friends were totally upset about the way he is dealing with the disease,” he said. “I am one of the people who personally saw the blood test of one of the patients, who was told by al-Zindani to have sex with his wife because he is virus-free, but then when I saw the results, he still had HIV,” he said.
Controversial sheikh claims AIDS cure