Eighth to the Sixteenth Century - Rashid Islamic Center

Islam and Modern Science: Contemporary Issues • 223This caricature of the Islam and science discourse is a recentinvention. It has found popularity for it satisfies certain psychologicalneeds of Muslims as well as Western journalism. It makes Muslimsfeel at par with “advanced nations” in science; for various Westernjournalists and media, such news items make economic and politicalsense. What remains unsaid in all of this is the utter irrelevance of theissue to the vast majority of Muslims, the absence of any real scientificinfrastructure in the Muslim world, and the desperate attemptsof some Muslim countries to “catch up” with the West in science bysome magic stem cell that would remove structural inadequacies anddeficiencies of human resources generated over three centuries.Today, Egypt, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Malaysiaconduct stem cell research. Iranian scientists had developed humanembryonic stem cell lines as early as 2003. Fatwas exist that considerboth the therapeutic cloning of embryos as well as embryonic stemcell research lawful. But in countries where the monthly income ofmost people is in the range of 10 to 50 US dollars, the danger ofselling organs, embryos, and other “spare parts” is high, especiallybecause legal safeguards are practically absent.Notwithstanding these broader issues, a number of works havecome into existence that explore Islam’s position on various branchesof modern biomedical sciences. Numerous conferences and seminarson these issues have been held during the last decade. They havehelped to sharpen certain questions and answers. A representativeexample of Muslim opinions on these issues can be found in theproceedings of a series of conferences organized by the IslamicOrganization for Medical Sciences, Kuwait (http://www.islamset.com/ioms/main.html).In ConclusionIslamic perspectives on modern science are intertwined with a host ofother political, social, and economic issues. We have examined someof these contributing factors that have shaped the contemporaryIslam and science discourse. Two important factors stand out fromthe rest: Islam’s encounter with modernity and a deep-seated, almostinsatiable, hunger for modern science in the Muslim psyche. In thefinal analysis, modern science is a Western enterprise, with deep