Richard Dawkins And The Brave New Science Of Evilogy

Richard Dawkins is undoubtedly the greatest scientist of his generation, despite the Nobel Prize committee ignoring his work because of its notoriously old-fashioned view of science. Traditional institutions don’t understand Dawkins’ brand of daring and ambitious scientific speculation that is inherently true because it is conducted by a famous scientist. This hasn’t diminished the value of Professor Dawkins to his millions of fans around the world, who hang onto his every word like it was gospel. Well, maybe not gospel, but a gospel-ish atheist book.

The professor recently caused a massive controversy by saying that Islam is the ‘greatest force for evil today’ while admitting that he hasn’t read the Koran. Curious to get to the bottom of this affair, we dispatched our science editor to interview the famous atheist. Professor Dawkins kindly agreed to do the interview because he’s keen to spread his message in the Middle East. Which is ironically how a few religions got started, but we refrained from pointing that out to him.

The Louvre Islamic Wing - BBC Radio 3 Night Waves Programme

Listen to the BBC Radio 3 Night Waves Programme about the new Louvre Islamic Wing, broadcast on 25 September 2012. We discuss the political context around the gallery, its architecture and the fantastic art works exhibited. We also visit a different type of institution that deals with Islamic art and culture, L’Institut des Cultures d’Islam and talk to its director, Véronique Rieffel.  

Pamela Geller: A Letter of Love to Muslimics

In her continuing effort to build bridges with the Arab world, we have received the following article from Pamela Geller which we are publishing below. We decided to keep Ms. Geller's unique style of grammar and punctuation in the interest of authenticity, even though it doesn't resemble the English language as everyone else understands it. 

To Muslimanics everywhere, I say I have a message of love. I love for you to stay where you are. Stop coming to America and, trying to change our freedom-loving ways. You notice that I am big on love. You must have seen the famous photo of me, I am wearing a necklace that says ‘LOVE’. Someone once told me that’s ironic. But I didn’t understand his fancy liberal university talk.

On debating atheism in Islam

It is said that the Muslims were gathered in the presence of the Caliph when an atheist approached them and said ‘I don’t believe in God, there cannot be a God, you cannot hear Him or see Him, you’re wasting your time! Bring me your best debater and I will debate this issue with him.’ The best debater at the time was Imam Abu Hanifah, a messenger was sent to summon him to the royal palace. Several hours passed by without a sign of Abu Hanifah, but he finally showed up.

The Caliph inquired why Abu Hanifah was late. Abu Hanifah explained that he came to the bank of the River Tigris but there were no boats to take him to the other side. While he was waiting, he saw some planks of wood floating nearby. The planks suddenly came together and formed a boat. The boat then drifted towards him and he got in. The boat then crossed the river on its own, without any visible sail or oars, and landed him on the other bank. He then got off the boat and came to the Royal Palace.

At this moment, the atheist burst out laughing and remarked, ‘Oh Abu Hanifah, I heard that you were the best debater from amongst the Muslims, I heard that you were the wisest, the most knowledgeable from amongst your people. From seeing you today, I can say that you show none of these qualities. You speak of a boat appearing from nowhere, without someone having built it and the boat taking you to your destination without a navigator against the tide, your taking childish, you’re talking ridiculous, I swear I do not believe a word of it!’

Abu Hanifah Rahimullah replied, ‘If you cannot believe that a boat came into being without a boat maker, than this is only a boat, how can you believe that the whole world, the universe, the stars, the oceans, and the planets came into being without a creator?

The atheist astonished at his reply got up and fled.

This story is a popular one and is often repeated as the ultimate argument against atheists. It might be a true account or a fictional story, sometimes it’s attributed to Abu Hanifah but in many versions it only refers to an unnamed notable Muslim scholar. It doesn’t really matter if the story is true or not, what matters is that it is considered a plausible scenario.

What really strikes me about it is what it signifies from today’s perspective regardless of our opinion of the scholar’s debating skills. If we believe the premise, then it was possible for an atheist in the early years of Islam to debate a prominent Muslim scholar in front of the caliph and therefore publicly deny the existence of God. Compare that with the current situation when any hint of deviation from orthodox views can land people in serious trouble, as happened recently with the Saudi poet Hamza Kashgari. The real lesson to take from such stories is that the spirit of open debate is more in keeping with Islamic tradition than today’s censoriousness.    

Note: There are various versions of the story online here and here for example.

Burning the Quran: A superfluous controversy

The most reasonable comment I came across on the Quran burning controversy was written by Lebanese blogger Mustafa aka Beirut Spring. “The more we talk about and vilify the Koran burners, the more we play into their hands.” Mustafa has managed to recognise a truth that has eluded world leaders and commentators alike. Mustafa went on to say:

“They will burn their Korans, go home, and nobody will die as a result. The Muslim world would have finally grown the thick skin it always needed. We would learn the lesson that most other religions have already learned: Just because a fool somewhere calls your religion evil/ignorant/foolish, it doesn’t mean it’s true.”

Call me naive, but I think most Muslims are as reasonable as Mustafa. The truly offensive suggestion in this debate is that all Muslims are blood-thirsty savages who will fly into a rage and start murdering people when they hear of the Quran burning. And this is precisely what western leaders and journalists are suggesting will happen, hence their eagerness to stop this burning from taking place.

'A Jihad for Love' comes to Beirut

Looks like a minor controversy is brewing in Beirut around the screening of Parvez Sharma's A Jihad for Love. The film explores the relationship between Islam and homosexuality through the eyes of men and women who are both Muslim and gay and are openly defiant about their sexuality and its place within Muslim societies. I saw the film a while back on Channel 4 and was fascinated by it and by the courage of the individuals portrayed in it, many of whom had been beaten, raped and chastised by their communities. Sharma spent six years making the film, getting to know the characters very well and gaining their trust. The diversity of the stories told, covering countries such as Iraq, Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey and France, gives a comprehensive view of the treatment of homosexuality in Islamic societies today.