An Introduction to Real Islam
30 Dec, 2006
Hypocrisy & Deception: The Koranic Science Conundrum
How Did The Issue of Scientific Miracles Come Up? - A Historical Background
- The Arab Nationalism/The Decline of Islam
The Arab world passed through a brief period of renaissance during the last century. The Arabs revolted against the Ottoman Empire to the painful fact that they were well behind the West in science and technology. The Europeans were seen by the Arabs as their national enemy and as the occupying forces of the Arabs. At the same time they also realized they (the Arabs) had a great deal to learn from the Europeans. Arab counties were struggling to gain their independence, which they eventually achieved. The future seemed to be bright but there was hard work to be done to catch up with the west.
This period was marked with some decline in the interest in religion among the Muslim Arabs. Muslim clerics were unable to provide answers to questions of modern life and were often seen as obstacles to development. Consequently, Muslim clerics lost some of their influence on the rest of the population, and were often portrayed negatively in Arabic culture. The Muslim brotherhood movement was banned and the general public looked at its members with some degree of suspicion.
In the
Arabian Peninsula things were moving in another direction. The Saudi
family just got hold of the country, thanks to their alliance with the
members of the newly formed wahabi
religious sect renowned for applying Islam in its strictest form. This
coincided with the discovery of oil in the country, which led to
wealth on a scale never known to the Arabs before. To spoil the party
for the Saudis, this also coincided with the appearance in
Egypt of
President Nasser with his pan-Arabist nationalist agenda.
Nasser's influence quickly covered the entire Arab world. Saudi Arabia
acquired the image of a backward country and had little influence in
the political stage. That was the age of Arab nationalism, which ended
by the death of its hero, Nasser, in 1970 only three years after the
Arab's defeat in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
- The Role of Saudi Arabia
- The vacuum left was immediately filled by Saudi Arabia who aggressively promoted its brand of Islam (Wahhabism) to the rest of the Arab and Islamic worlds. Saudi Arabia was well placed to do that, thanks to its financial muscle. Saudi Arabia had millions of foreign employees, who although were largely Muslims, had little interest in religion. The system in Saudi Arabia is that all Muslims must practice their religion, in other words, all male Muslims must pray in mosques, a small inconvenience for the good money to earn. All mosques in the country are run by Saudi imams and strictly preach only wahabbi Islam with no tolerance for the other sects of Islam. Even though Saudi Arabia recruited many scholars from many Arab and Islamic countries to teach in its various institutes, these scholars were converted and were allowed to teach Islam only the wahabbi way. To their liking, this system resulted in a whole generation that has been brainwashed. The process was made easier by the fact that most of those millions of employees had only minimal knowledge in Islam, and therefore, were unwilling and incapable to dispute the new teachings.
Saudi Arabia applied those measures from the early days of its creation but they were largely ineffective during the 50s and 60s, because the Arabs were busy rallying behind Nasser in his push for Arab nationalism. To make things even worse to the Saudis, Nasser managed to make Egypt as the most influential Islamic country due to the presence in Egypt of Al Azhar University, which was considered for hundreds of years as the highest Islamic authority. In other words, Saudi Arabia was effectively sidelined by Nasser, whose name will remain as one of the most hated names to both the Saudis and Islamists.
All these changed after Nasser's death in 1970. Egypt ceased to be a leading force in the Arab and the Islamic world, Al Azhar lost its status to Saudi institutions, and many of its scholars were recruited by Saudi Arabia and converted to preach their brand of Islam. The once-banned radical Muslim brotherhood movement was resurrected.
These were the perfect settings for the Islamic movements to
make a comeback with a vengeance. They promoted Islam aggressively -
their message to people was that all the problems in the Islamic
world, including the defeat of the Arabs in 1967, are due to the
non-adherence to the strict teachings of Islam. In this sense it is
only fair to say that the Islamic movements emerged as clear winners
after 1967. They used the defeat to support their argument in
attacking nationalism and advocating Islamic fundamentalism as an
alternative.
- Maurice Bucaille
- Islamic movements were aware that Islam and science do not mix well, which is hardly a problem to any true Muslim, who always see Islam to be right and science to be wrong. However, if they want to make the religion more acceptable to others, regardless of Muslims or non-Muslims, there were many questions to be answered. The rescue came from Maurice Bucaille, a French doctor who worked for the Saudi king and wrote a book in the 1970s about the Bible, the Quran and modern science. Oil money seems to have paid well. To the Islamists, this is like winning the jackpot.
Saudi Arabia established a generously financed government organization whose purpose is not just solving the incompatibilities between the Quran and science but to go even further and claim that the Quran has many scientific miracles. They recruited Muslim scholars and scientists from around the world and targeted western scientists. This strategy obviously brought much success.
To this point, I must say that I never met a friend or a colleague who carefully had read Maurice Bucaille’s book, although they all know about it. But that does not matter. What matters is the fact that a western Christian has admitted that the Quran is scientifically accurate and superior to the Bible. If a Muslim wrote such a book it would not make such an impact, as the material contained is not the issue, the author is. Speaking of myself I read the book during the height of my religious interest and was never really convinced of the arguments in it, but who cares? What matters is that there is an admission from a western Christian intellectual that the Quran is correct, scientifically. If such an admission comes from the enemy camp why should I question it? I believed all the claims made in the book not because they convinced me but because they happened to suit me.
One cannot help wondering if Maurice Bucaille really believed what he claimed about the divine origin of the Quran. He must have read the Quran carefully and came across with the many verses in which Allah makes it clear that the unbelievers will be burnt in hell fire for eternity. For this fear alone, at the least, Maurice Bucaille should have pronounced the shahada to save his soul. Some Muslims claim that he had lately converted to Islam, a claim that does not make any difference to this argument. He certainly didn't know that he is going to live long enough to re-think and convert to Islam, if it is true that he did convert.
Maurice
Bucaille's position reminds us with another famous personality who
knew Allah but decided to
be in opposition. No I did not mean Prof. Keith Moore, I meant
Iblis (the Satan)
himself! The Satan's attitude in opposing Allah remains a mystery to
us all. He knew everything about Allah's punishments and knew the
consequences of his disobedience; still he opposed Allah.
- The Appearance of the Miracle Specialists
- Maurice Bucaille gave Islamic clerics a big boost. He gave them confidence and proved them that their efforts were well-paid. This lead to the appearance of a new breed of Muslim scholars called 'miracle specialists' whose role is to spread this myth of Quranic miracles to Muslims and non-Muslims everywhere in the world. With the purpose of strengthening their faith and securing their conversion to Saudi wahabism, their first target is the Muslims. Other targets are the non-Muslims working in Saudi Arabia, who are given the message about the miracle myth by every possible means. Non-Muslim conversions to Islam were generously rewarded. Then of course, to use in their campaign, they targeted western scientists to say some positive remarks about Islam.
Muslim miracle specialists developed an aggressive approach in selling their lies. There are many aspects to their strategy none of which are based on scientific analysis. They know their audience is basically simple, ordinary folks who are unlikely to subject their claims to research or scientific analysis. They inject scientific language and terminology into ordinary Arabic words that have been taken completely out of context. They will even tell a lie, yes a completely baseless lie, to overwhelm their simple-minded audience.
Exploring scientific miracles in the Quran, with its stars
and celebrities, has become a big business in the Islamic world. In
addition to the dedicated pages in the newspapers and internet sites,
in every Islamic country, there are committed television programs and
national meetings - just to cover Islamic science!
- The Strategy of the 'Miracle specialist'
- Without any doubt in their minds, the miracle scientists believe that the Quran is Allah's revelations to Mohammed. Therefore, everything in the Quran must be absolutely accurate. This is their starting point, which they fully believe to be an absolute fact. Everything else in life must give in to maintain the integrity of this absolute belief. When the Quran doesn't agree with the commonsense or logical thinking, those must to be adapted/modified to conform to the Quranic logic. If the Quran disagrees with some scientific principles then a Muslim must dismiss those scientific principles as wrong, even if they appear to be correct in view of the overwhelming evidence. The scientific evidence might change in the future (with Allah's willing), but the Quran will never change.
True Muslims will have no reservation in challenging the most basic scientific fact, if it is not in line with the Quranic teachings. Their golden rule is that Allah is always right while everything else can be wrong. There is no problem with true Muslims in admitting that even when all the available evidence points to the truth of a scientific fact but contradicts the Quran; it simply does not become a fact at all! Any true Muslim will choose to be with Allah even when it is against the whole world. However, they understand that not all Muslims have a perfect faith like theirs; therefore, proving that Quran is in harmony with science is always welcome.
These so-called miracle specialists developed a strategy to solve any incompatibility between Quran and science. The Quran is made of words that cannot change, while the human knowledge and understanding may change. Arabic dictionaries and tafseer (interpretation) books are not divine; therefore, can be changed.
Next in their strategy is to get of what appears like a stamp of authority on whatever they want to say, and there is no shortage of scientists who are willing to endorse, in return for money and fame, whatever appeals to the miracle advocates. These scientists get invitations to appear in lavishly organized meetings where the speakers make their claims of Quranic agreements with science. The only other argument allowed in such meetings is to praise their findings. The audience is usually overwhelmed by an impressive introduction of a Muslim (or a non-Muslim) scientist, typically a person who worked or qualified in the west, attended many international meetings, appeared on many TV programs and has many publications. This way, the audience is already prepared to trust whatever this man is going to say. Their usual evidence is something like, 'as we all know that this has been scientifically proven beyond doubt.'