by Salman Hameed

If you are in the area, join us for Wednesday lunch talk hosted by the Center for the Study of Science in Muslim Societies (SSiMS) and the School of Cognitive Science at Hampshire College. Here are the details:

 Islamic structures of science and society

by 

Lydia Wilson

Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Graduate Center, CUNY

Wednesday, December 4th, 2013

at Noon

Adele Simmons Hall, Hampshire College

Abstract: I will argue that an analysis of the relationship between science and Islam can provide a fresh lens through which to look at the functioning of modern political Islam and contemporary Muslim societies. In analysing contemporary critiques of science in the Muslim world, echoes with the situation under totalitarian regimes were hard to ignore, most obviously in: 1) treatment of dissenters; 2) other forms of political interference; 3) a creation and defence of an alternative scientific epistemology; and 4) a definition of, and attacks on, an enemy. This last gives an insight into political and social attitudes more broadly. The definition of the enemy under Soviet theory was class-based (bourgeois or capitalist); under the Nazis it was race-based (non-Aryan and in particular Jewish); in certain Islamic science discourses today it is geopolitical (Western science, often conflated with “modern”). There have been various characterisations given of “Western” science in the Muslim world, and a variety of responses, from total rejection to complete assimilation. But even within societies creating an Islamic epistemology for science, scientists play a high profile role, including within extremist movements, both violent and non-violent. For example, the Muslim Brotherhood appointed an engineer to be Prime Minister, and engineers are vastly over-represented in jihadist attacks in the past 20 years. This ambivalence to science can be seen as one instance of the ambivalence to Western culture more generally.

Biographical statement: Lydia Wilson is the Mellon postdoctoral fellow at CUNY Graduate Center. After completing a PhD in medieval Arabic philosophy (University of Cambridge, UK), she shifted to the modern Middle East, building on previous journalism experience to pursue anthropological research, particularly anthropology of conflict. Lydia reviews regularly for the Times Literary Supplement, and edits the Cambridge Literary Review.

In the Adele Simmons Hall (ASH) Lobby at Hampshire College.          

A light lunch will be available at noon.

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by Salman Hameed

A while ago, I had posted a video of jazz classic Take Five by Lahore based Sachal Studio. Their jazz arrangements include sitar, tabla and flute and gives it a South Asian flavor. Just this past Friday and Saturday, seven musicians from Sachal Jazz Ensemble joined the 15-piece Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for a joint performance. Here is the review from NYT:

 Mr. Marsalis is tireless, and very effective, in explaining the connections between different kinds of music around the world. In this concert he leaned hard on the idea of the habanera rhythm — common in one way or another in African, Antillean and new-world popular music — being one of those affinities. And so the two ensembles piled in on Morton’s “New Orleans Blues,” arranged by Victor Goines, of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and they figured out a way to build the habanera rhythm together. 

The Pakistani musicians, on the left, played on the beat with precision and intent; the Americans, on the right, played behind it. But there was enough flexibility and amassed sound to approximate something like the rolling feeling of swing. 

One of the ways to use your ears in Saturday night’s concert was to notice when and how well each side bent toward the other. The orchestra’s drummer, Ali Jackson, getting light and quiet on his instrument and listening hard, was all-important to the process. But so was the Pakistani flutist Baqar Abbas, the Sachal Jazz Ensemble’s clearest and most house-wrecking virtuoso, who bent and warped notes as an absolute matter of course rather than for effect. In one of the concert’s best stretches, he traded solos with Ted Nash, from the orchestra, playing piccolo. 

They got around to “Take Five,” a song with another linking agent — its five-beat rhythm cycle, fairly common in Carnatic and Hindustani music. In a solo, the sitarist Indrajit Roy-Chowdhury stretched out in his own technique in a more jazzlike melodic improvisation. The technique was exact and contained, the tempo stately enough that every note could be heard.

Read the full review here.         

I haven't seen good quality footage from this particular event, but here is Wynton Marsalis Quintet with Sachal Jazz Ensemble performing "Rythmesque" at Marciac festival a few months ago: 

And once again, here is the video of their fantastic version of Take Five:



And if you want to move in the direction of R.E.M, here is Sachal Studios' take on Everybody Hurts (here is the original):

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by Salman Hameed

Here is an announcement from Rationalist Society of Pakistan (RSOP) about a short film competition. And there is no cost to submit an entry:

RSOP is organizing a film competition, which is now open for submissions! This is a great opportunity to share your work on following topics! Forced Marriages Faith Healers Secularism: Dispelling Misconceptions Moon Sighting or Moon Fighting: Muslims at loggerheads every year Evolution: An Idiot’s guide to evolution Integration: The way forward Entry is free. The closing date for entry is 10th of January, 2014 Films should be no longer than 10 minutes and can be shot on any equipment including DSLRs, iPhones and video cameras. Permission must be sought from organisations/owners of buildings before filming in them and from all individuals shown in the film. Copyright permission must be agreed before using any stock video, images or music.

RSOP is organizing a film competition, which is now open for submissions!
This is a great opportunity to share your work on following topics! 

• Forced Marriages 

• Faith Healers 

• Secularism: Dispelling Misconceptions 

• Moon Sighting or Moon Fighting: Muslims at loggerheads every year 

• Evolution: An Idiot’s guide to evolution 

• Integration: The way forward Entry is free. 

The closing date for entry is 10th of January, 2014. Films should be no longer than 10 minutes and can be shot on any equipment including DSLRs, iPhones and video cameras.
Permission must be sought from organisations/owners of buildings before filming in them and from all individuals shown in the film.
Copyright permission must be agreed before using any stock video, images or music.

The competition is open to UK and Pakistani Residents. You can see the other guidelines here.

Read more at: RSOP Short Film Competition | Rationalist Pakistan: Rationalist Society of Pakistan | http://www.rationalistpakistan.com/rsopfilmcompetition/

RSOP is organizing a film competition, which is now open for submissions! This is a great opportunity to share your work on following topics! Forced Marriages Faith Healers Secularism: Dispelling Misconceptions Moon Sighting or Moon Fighting: Muslims at loggerheads every year Evolution: An Idiot’s guide to evolution Integration: The way forward Entry is free. The closing date for entry is 10th of January, 2014 Films should be no longer than 10 minutes and can be shot on any equipment including DSLRs, iPhones and video cameras. Permission must be sought from organisations/owners of buildings before filming in them and from all individuals shown in the film. Copyright permission must be agreed before using any stock video, images or music. Terms & Conditions The competition is open to UK and Pakistani Residents. All entries must be the original work of the entrant and must not infringe the rights of any other party. The working Languages should be English and/or Urdu. The entrants must be the sole owner of copyright in all videos/short films entered and must have obtained permission of any people featured in the entry or parents/guardians if children are less than 16 years. Entrants must not have breached any laws when filming. The films will be property of RSOP who will retain the right of using them in whatever way they deem suitable . Entrants can submit as many short films/videos as they wish. The videos may be uploaded on Vimeo and the link will be sent to editor@rationalistpakistan.com with subject “Short Film Competition Submission” to be specifically mentioned. The competition closes at Midnight (GMT), 10th of January, 2014. Winners will be announced on 20th of January, 2014. The winner of top three videos among all topics will be awarded honorary prizes of amount 100 UK Pounds for first three positions. The winners will be announced on the website. For any queries undersigned can be contacted on the mentioned email. Editor Rationalist Society of Pakistan editor@rationalistpakistan.com www.rationalistpakistan.com

Read more at: RSOP Short Film Competition | Rationalist Pakistan: Rationalist Society of Pakistan | http://www.rationalistpakistan.com/rsopfilmcompetition/RSOP is organizing a film competition, which is now open for submissions! This is a great opportunity to share your work on following topics! Forced Marriages Faith Healers Secularism: Dispelling Misconceptions Moon Sighting or Moon Fighting: Muslims at loggerheads every year Evolution: An Idiot’s guide to evolution Integration: The way forward Entry is free. The closing date for entry is 10th of January, 2014 Films should be no longer than 10 minutes and can be shot on any equipment including DSLRs, iPhones and video cameras. Permission must be sought from organisations/owners of buildings before filming in them and from all individuals shown in the film. Copyright permission must be agreed before using any stock video, images or music. Terms & Conditions The competition is open to UK and Pakistani Residents. All entries must be the original work of the entrant and must not infringe the rights of any other party. The working Languages should be English and/or Urdu. The entrants must be the sole owner of copyright in all videos/short films entered and must have obtained permission of any people featured in the entry or parents/guardians if children are less than 16 years. Entrants must not have breached any laws when filming. The films will be property of RSOP who will retain the right of using them in whatever way they deem suitable . Entrants can submit as many short films/videos as they wish. The videos may be uploaded on Vimeo and the link will be sent to editor@rationalistpakistan.com with subject “Short Film Competition Submission” to be specifically mentioned. The competition closes at Midnight (GMT), 10th of January, 2014. Winners will be announced on 20th of January, 2014. The winner of top three videos among all topics will be awarded honorary prizes of amount 100 UK Pounds for first three positions. The winners will be announced on the website. For any queries undersigned can be contacted on the mentioned email. Editor Rationalist Society of Pakistan editor@rationalistpakistan.com www.rationalistpakistan.com

Read more at: RSOP Short Film Competition | Rationalist Pakistan: Rationalist Society of Pakistan | http://www.rationalistpakistan.com/rsopfilmcompetition/RSOP is organizing a film competition, which is now open for submissions! This is a great opportunity to share your work on following topics! Forced Marriages Faith Healers Secularism: Dispelling Misconceptions Moon Sighting or Moon Fighting: Muslims at loggerheads every year Evolution: An Idiot’s guide to evolution Integration: The way forward Entry is free. The closing date for entry is 10th of January, 2014 Films should be no longer than 10 minutes and can be shot on any equipment including DSLRs, iPhones and video cameras. Permission must be sought from organisations/owners of buildings before filming in them and from all individuals shown in the film. Copyright permission must be agreed before using any stock video, images or music. Terms & Conditions The competition is open to UK and Pakistani Residents. All entries must be the original work of the entrant and must not infringe the rights of any other party. The working Languages should be English and/or Urdu. The entrants must be the sole owner of copyright in all videos/short films entered and must have obtained permission of any people featured in the entry or parents/guardians if children are less than 16 years. Entrants must not have breached any laws when filming. The films will be property of RSOP who will retain the right of using them in whatever way they deem suitable . Entrants can submit as many short films/videos as they wish. The videos may be uploaded on Vimeo and the link will be sent to editor@rationalistpakistan.com with subject “Short Film Competition Submission” to be specifically mentioned. The competition closes at Midnight (GMT), 10th of January, 2014. Winners will be announced on 20th of January, 2014. The winner of top three videos among all topics will be awarded honorary prizes of amount 100 UK Pounds for first three positions. The winners will be announced on the website. For any queries undersigned can be contacted on the mentioned email. Editor Rationalist Society of Pakistan editor@rationalistpakistan.com www.rationalistpakistan.com

Read more at: RSOP Short Film Competition | Rationalist Pakistan: Rationalist Society of Pakistan | http://www.rationalistpakistan.com/rsopfilmcompetition/

RSOP is organizing a film competition, which is now open for submissions! This is a great opportunity to share your work on following topics! Forced Marriages Faith Healers Secularism: Dispelling Misconceptions Moon Sighting or Moon Fighting: Muslims at loggerheads every year Evolution: An Idiot’s guide to evolution Integration: The way forward Entry is free. The closing date for entry is 10th of January, 2014 Films should be no longer than 10 minutes and can be shot on any equipment including DSLRs, iPhones and video cameras. Permission must be sought from organisations/owners of buildings before filming in them and from all individuals shown in the film. Copyright permission must be agreed before using any stock video, images or music. Terms & Conditions The competition is open to UK and Pakistani Residents. All entries must be the original work of the entrant and must not infringe the rights of any other party. The working Languages should be English and/or Urdu. The entrants must be the sole owner of copyright in all videos/short films entered and must have obtained permission of any people featured in the entry or parents/guardians if children are less than 16 years. Entrants must not have breached any laws when filming. The films will be property of RSOP who will retain the right of using them in whatever way they deem suitable . Entrants can submit as many short films/videos as they wish. The videos may be uploaded on Vimeo and the link will be sent to editor@rationalistpakistan.com with subject “Short Film Competition Submission” to be specifically mentioned. The competition closes at Midnight (GMT), 10th of January, 2014. Winners will be announced on 20th of January, 2014. The winner of top three videos among all topics will be awarded honorary prizes of amount 100 UK Pounds for first three positions. The winners will be announced on the website. For any queries undersigned can be contacted on the mentioned email. Editor Rationalist Society of Pakistan editor@rationalistpakistan.com www.rationalistpakistan.com

Read more at: RSOP Short Film Competition | Rationalist Pakistan: Rationalist Society of Pakistan | http://www.rationalistpakistan.com/rsopfilmcompetition/

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by Salman Hameed

If you are in the area, join us for Wednesday lunch talk hosted by the Center for the Study of Science in Muslim Societies (SSiMS) and the School of Cognitive Science at Hampshire College. Here are the details:

Seeking Good Debate: Religion, Science, and Conflict in American Public Life

by 

Michael Evans

Neukom Fellow in the Neukom Institute for Computational Science and the Department of Film & Media Studies at Dartmouth College

Wednesday, October 30th, 2013

at Noon

Adele Simmons Hall, Hampshire College

Abstract: Why do science and religion seem to generate contentious public debate? In this talk I draw on computational linguistic analysis of over 10,000 newspaper articles, biographical research on key participants, and qualitative interviews with ordinary Americans to show that apparent conflicts in the public sphere over “science and religion” issues such as stem cell research, human origins, environmental policy, and the origins of sexuality actually result from a disconnection between the structure of elite debate in the American public sphere and the ideals of deliberative debate expected by ordinary Americans. I show how this insight helps explain several anomalies in current scholarship, such as why religious beliefs do not always impede support for science, why there is a gap between trust in science and trust in scientists, and why religious conservatives continue to dominate American public life. I also discuss the implications for science communication, particularly around issues where religion is involved.

Biographical statement: Michael Evans is an interdisciplinary scholar who uses computational and

qualitative methods to study contentious debates over science and technology issues. He has written about the social sources of public conflict over science and religion, how scientific elites shape interested publics, how narratives of continuity bolster scientific credibility, the role of religion in science communication, and the deliberative preferences of ordinary Americans, among other topics. He received his PhD in Sociology and Science Studies from the University of California, San Diego. Currently he is a Neukom Fellow in the Neukom Institute for Computational Science and the Department of Film & Media Studies at Dartmouth College. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~neukom/programs/neukom_fellows_14.html


In the Adele Simmons Hall (ASH) Lobby at Hampshire College.         
A light lunch will be available at noon.

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by Salman Hameed

I'll be leaving for the annual MESA meeting early tomorrow morning. I'm part of the panel on The Reception of Biological Evolution in the Muslim World and we will present some of our results from

the recent NSF survey. Our panel has the honor of being scheduled on the last session of the last day of the conference. So if you are at the meeting and are sticking around on Sunday, come to our session. Here is the description of our panel:

We are familiar with debates over biological evolution here in the US. These debates are now starting to take place in various Muslim countries as well. In this panel we want to take an interdisciplinary approach to understand the reception of biological evolution in diverse Muslim societies. In particular, we want to explore how belief, ideology and politics interplay with each other in the acceptance and rejection of evolution. 

Biological evolution is still a relatively new concept for a majority of Muslims and a serious debate over its compatibility with religion has not yet taken place. The circumstances for the debate are, in many ways, significantly different from the engagement between evolution and Creationism in the West, reflecting a complex intermingling of ideas about science and religion. For example, much of modern science, including evolution, is an import for Muslims, and is therefore often seen through the complicated lens of modernity and the interactions with European colonial powers. 

However, science in general is well respected, and there is widespread recognition that science (usually in its applied form) is essential for progress. For instance, many Muslim countries are investing in biomedical fields that make use of evolutionary theory. Evolution is also included the high school curricula of many Muslim countries, though human evolution is often excluded. 

This reflects the prevailing narrative in the Muslim world that Islam and modern science are compatible, and that Islam is a rational religion in harmony with modern science. It is common for people to cite verses in the Qur’an or achievements of medieval Muslim philosophers to support this assertion. However, for many Muslims, biological evolution also clashes with common Qur’anic interpretations. This leads to a complex mesh of attitudes, ranging from rejecting evolution altogether to interpreting the Qur’an in ways that eliminate inconsistencies with the theory. 

The goal of this panel is to present the topic from three perspectives: a) to present an analysis of high-school biology curricula in various Muslim-majority countries so see how evolution is presented and contextualized with respect to Islam, b) to present an analysis of the way biomedical Muslim professionals negotiate evolution and their beliefs, and the local cultural and political factors that might shape these responses, and c) to present the perspective of professional Muslim biologists engaged in dialogue with theologians and the general public on the topic of evolution.

Unfortunately, one of our panelists, Ehab Abouheif, cannot make it to the meeting. But you will still get to hear from the rest of us.

I will also try to post from sessions that are relevant for the blog. 

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by Salman Hameed

Pew has a new report out that looks at Jewish Americans and the changes in their views over the last 100 years. Some of the findings are not surprising, but I think it is the generational comparison that makes the report fascinating. For example, here is a snapshot of how the numbers of Jews who do not associate with the religion have increased over the last hundred years or so:

Now this trend of no-religion is the same as with the rest of the US, but within the Jewish context, 44% of no-religion Jews still attend religious services at least a few of times a year. Here is a snapshot of religious attendance along with a comparison with American Christian groups: 

And again, this may not come as a surprise, but being Jewish is more about cultural identity than religion:

Secularism has a long tradition in Jewish life in America, and most U.S. Jews seem to recognize this: 62% say being Jewish is mainly a matter of ancestry and culture, while just 15% say it is mainly a matter of religion. Even among Jews by religion, more than half (55%) say being Jewish is mainly a matter of ancestry and culture, and two-thirds say it is not necessary to believe in God to be Jewish.

And here is the denominational distribution of American Jews. Note that unaffiliated Jews are more than the "no-religion" Jews and that is because 19% of Jews by religion and two-thirds of Jews of no religion do not identify with any denomination.

Also, the overall level of education is much higher for American Jews compared with the rest of the population:

Jews have high levels of educational attainment. Most Jews are college graduates (58%), including 28% who say they have earned a post-graduate degree. By comparison, 29% of U.S. adults say they graduated from college, including 10% who have a post-graduate degree.

One last thing from the Pew survey. It is fascinating to note that most American Jews recognize that Muslims (and also gays and lesbians) in the US face more discrimination than they do. See the table below:

Read the full report here (pdf).

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by Salman Hameed

A new website has been launched with a focus on Islam and Science: An Educational Approach (thanks to Abdelaziz Gillali for sending the link). The effort is led by Nidhal Guessoum (he used to contribute to Irtiqa as well) and is a collaboration between the American University of Sharjah and the

Interdisciplinary University of Paris (though there are many more individuals from different institutions involved in it). This is an important addition to the discourse over science and Islam and I think it will be good counter to sites propagated by people like Zakir Naik,  Harun Yahya, etc. While I'm a proponent of a strong separation of science and religion, this website/project will also provide a platform for those who are seeking a synthesis and integration between science and Islam. Go check it out.

Here are its Vision and Objectives:

• Pursue the elaboration of a new synthesis between modern scientific knowledge and Muslim traditions, approaches which are removed both from easy concordism and the view according to which it is impossible to reach a fruitful harmony between those fields.
• Contribute to open a high-level dialogue between Islam and modernity, thus allowing the development of a unified and coherent understanding of the world, without conflict or dissonance.
• Propose an education and training program to Muslim scholars, who would be able to develop a modern and sophisticated Science-Islam discourse and to present these points of view in international arenas.
• Develop and broadcast, on a large international scale, a well-informed discourse on  Islam & Science, one which is reasoned and scientifically solid.
• Delineate the fruitful pathways for the development of scientific culture in the Arab/Muslim World and popularize certain philosophical implications of contemporary science towards/aiming at the elite as well as the public at large.
• Show how the Muslim tradition can be a factor of dialogue and peace.
• Particpate to a high-level inter-religious dialogue and contribute to the emergence of a “common discourse” among the world’s major religions, that can be the basis of a new form of dialogue among cultures.
• Construct a process for delineating the role of science in the search of meaning in a more and more complex globalized world, a world full of promise but one which also carries dangers and threats for future generations.
• Contribute in a spirit of dialogue and openness to reopen the question of the meaning that modern societies are facing.

Go check out and explore their website.

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by Salman Hameed

Here is a short, insightful, and entertaining article from the Magazine section of NYT by Sahahan Mufti, about being mistaken for a Mufti:

 The first time I received such an e-mail, I assumed it was a mistake and ignored it. I ignored the next few e-mails as well, but I began to wonder if someone was playing a prank on me. The e-mails kept coming, sporadically, and without any hint of a setup or any sign of a punch line. Eventually I discovered the explanation. 

My surname, Mufti, is an Arabic word meaning “one who gives a fatwa.” 

And his name shows up quite high on Google searches. Okay that part is not that interesting. However, he provides an example that nicely illustrate what many people expect from fatwas:

This e-mail with the pushy subject line was unlike any other I had received. “My friend, who lives in Sweden, wants to get married to a Swedish woman,” it began in Latinized Urdu. “But this marriage will be a fake marriage.” Tahir, the sender, explained that his friend was already married to a woman in Pakistan but wanted to marry a Swedish woman to obtain Swedish citizenship. Tahir’s friend wanted him to deliver fake Pakistani divorce papers by forging both his and his wife’s signatures. Oblivious to the forgery, the Swedes would allow Tahir’s friend to marry, putting the secret bigamist on a path to Swedish citizenship and all that it offered. I doubted that either of the women were privy to the elaborate scheme. 

It was Tahir’s heedlessly narrow question at the end that surprised me the most: “If I forge the signatures on the divorce papers, will that really mean my friend will be divorced from his wife?” It was this small, rather arcane detail about God’s view of the marital bond that nagged his conscience — not the various international and domestic laws and criminal codes that he would break. “Would you do me a favor and resolve this problem?” 

For his answer, you have to read the article here. However, I was wondering about two things. First, often times people make so much of some crazy fatwas on the internet. Well, in the absence of a centralized authority and the easy of issuing a fatwa, this is exactly one would expect, for better or for worse. Second, I know the point of the article was to point to mundane nature of the question, but it is also about seeking a justification (approval) from an authority - any authority - and the bar for the qualification of being such an authority can be set quite low (for example, whatever google brings up first).

In case you are interested in the subject matter, also check out this project on internet fatwas and new trends in authority.

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by Salman Hameed

This is just a short note to say that if you have a Facebook account, and it seems that a significant portion of the world does, then join (or "like") the Irtiqa Facebook page. What is the advantage, you might justifiably ask? Well, all of Irtiqa posts are linked over there - so you are not loosing anything. However, I have also started to link more science & religion stories over there - primarily because it is easy to do so. So in case, you have a Facebook account, you can now get a deluxe version of Irtiqa there (oh and you will see another banner designed by Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad). But if not, posts will continue here as well.

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by Salman Hameed

I'm back from the break and I'm catching up on good and the bad news. So lets start with a recent Pew survey on the views of Americans on IVF, Stem cell research and abortion. All three of these issues are deeply tied to politics and legal matters here in the US and also feature in science in religion debates. Here is the broad picture of American views:

I'm actually surprised that there isn't much difference in opinion between embryonic and non-embryonic stem cell research, but that may be because "stem cells research" in the news often now stands for embryonic stem cell research - as that is the point of controversy for some. At the same time, political and ideological leanings do make a bigger difference in embryonic stem cell research than for non-embryonic stem cell research:

As with abortion, men and women are about equally likely to say embryonic stem cell research is morally acceptable. Similarly, adults ages 50 and older are about equally likely as younger adults (18 to 49 years) to say that conducting embryonic stem cell research is morally acceptable. However, college graduates are somewhat more inclined than those with less education to consider this practice morally acceptable. 

There also are differences when it comes to partisanship and ideology. About three-quarters of Democrats and independents who lean toward the Democratic Party consider embryonic stem cell research either morally acceptable or not a moral issue. Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are more inclined than their Democratic counterparts to consider such research morally wrong. Similarly, self-described conservatives tend to see embryonic stem cell research as morally wrong more than either moderates or liberals do. 

Among the major religious groups, white evangelical Protestants are most likely to say embryonic stem cell research is morally wrong. However, in comparison to attitudes toward abortion, differences among religious groups are relatively modest.
...
A separate question on the survey asked about the moral acceptability of medical research using stem cells that do not derive from human embryos. The overwhelming majority of adults say that non-embryonic stem cell research is either morally acceptable (33%) or is not a moral issue (42%); only 16% say such research is morally wrong. 

There are only modest differences in opinion among social and demographic groups on this issue. For example, there are no significant differences in opinion on non-embryonic stem cell research by political party and only modest differences by ideology. However, moderates and liberals are somewhat more inclined than conservatives to say non-embryonic research is not a moral issue. And those with a college degree are more likely than those with fewer years of formal education to say that non-embryonic stem cell research is morally acceptable.

Read the full report here.

I haven't seen Muslim views on IVF and embryonic stem cell research, but here are opinions on abortion:

Some of this not surprising (though look at the difference between Pakistan and Bangladesh!). Also, too bad that Iran is not in this sample - as it is possible that their views would have stood out. However, at least 10% of respondents in 13 countries think that this is not a moral issues:

In 13 countries however, at least one-in-ten Muslims say abortion is not a moral issue. This view is especially common in some countries in the Middle East-North Africa region; 34% in Jordan, 22% in Egypt and 21% in Iraq say they do not consider abortion to be a moral question. 

Additionally, in 11 of the countries surveyed, at least one-in-ten Muslims volunteer that the morality of having an abortion depends on the situation. Half of Azerbaijani Muslims and more than a third (34%) of Muslims in Tajikistan take this view. Overall, this perception is most common in Central Asia and the Middle East-North Africa region.

Read the Pew report on Muslim views here.

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by Salman Hameed

Eid Mubarak to all! 

I wanted to point out that apart from the beautiful calligraphy, the crescent side is accurate here for a waxing Moon (image from here). Waxing crescent is the one that determines the beginning of the new Islamic month, and is visible close to sunset. Here are the phases of the Moon: 

Most flags of Muslim countries, such as Pakistan's or Turkey's, show a waning Moon (visible close to sunrise - not at sunset). Here is a collection of flags of Muslim countries: 

Only Turkmenistan has the waxing crescent (and Mauritania takes an cautious middle path). But of course, while the crescent is right, they placed stars inside the Moon - as if parts of the Moon disappear when they are not lit by the Sun (flags of Malaysia, Algeria, Tunisia, Pakistani and Mauritania do the same). But of course, flags are not meant to be scientifically accurate (stars don't have 5-corners either!), but I thought I'll add some random bit of science to the Eid message.

Here is the Turkmenistan flag - which I think is quite pretty:

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by Salman Hameed

There were two fascinating stories in yesterday's NYT. One talked about the path to doubt of a Mormon church leader and another addressed a "devil" priest from Ghana who is now living in Bronx. The internet plays an interesting role in both of these stories. In the case of the former, the internet led to sites that highlighted inconsistencies in the official Mormon Church stories. In the latter case, the Ghanan priest used social media to expand his reach and modernize his religion:

Renowned as a healer, Mr. Kwaku Bonsam claims to treat everything from curses to impotence. But he is best known for his ambitious efforts to modernize the indigenous West African religion dominant before Christian missionaries began arriving in great

numbers in the mid-19th century. 

So why was Ghana’s most feared fetish priest living inconspicuously in a one-bedroom apartment in the Bronx? 

In West Africa, traditional priests — often called fetish priests — have historically preferred secrecy and seclusion, carrying out their ancient rituals inside mud huts in remote areas. And since 1992, when a democratic constitution was approved in Ghana, traditional religion has come under increasing attack from a new generation of Pentecostal pastors, who use television, radio and the Internet to deride its rituals as devil worship. 

In a clever reversal, Mr. Kwaku Bonsam has adopted these same platforms to promote traditional religion. His outsize public persona and his cosmopolitan credentials make the case that the old spiritual practices are compatible with being a modern African.

And here he makes a fascinating statement:

“In Africa, traditional religion has always been considered extremely local, while Christianity was seen as a way of joining the larger world,” said Birgit Meyer, a professor of religious studies at Utrecht University in the Netherlands who conducted research in Ghana for 25 years and has written about Mr. Kwaku Bonsam. “But by using Facebook and YouTube and finally residing in New York City, Mr. Kwaku Bonsam shows that traditional religion can also go global. He’s making it fashionable, in other words.”

But I also found this part of the story interesting where the gods themselves are contested and appropriated:

“In African culture, when people experience a crisis, they often put their Christian beliefs aside and consult traditional priests,” he said. “They won’t usually admit it, of course, because that destroys their Christian credibility.” 

It was a similar situation that made Mr. Kwaku Bonsam famous, said Frederik Lamote, a professor at University College Brussels who wrote part of his doctoral thesis on him.
On April 2, 2008, Mr. Kwaku Bonsam stormed into the church of Collins Agyei Yeboah, a popular Pentecostal pastor in Kato, another southern town. Accompanied by a crew of policemen and reporters, he accused Pastor Yeboah of secretly soliciting the help of his traditional gods and then failing to properly compensate him and the gods for their services. Mr. Kwaku Bonsam claimed the gods had given him two choices: to retrieve the idol he had given the pastor, or to die at 6 p.m. that day. “Do you want the gods to kill me?” he asked Pastor Yeboah. 

In YouTube videos of the episode, viewed hundreds of thousands of times, Mr. Kwaku Bonsam went on to say that 1,600 pastors from around the country had visited him requesting juju spirits to help build their churches. The idol is eventually retrieved from behind Pastor Yeboah’s church and after a lengthy interrogation, the pastor is led away by the police. In the video, he angrily defended himself by saying that he had indeed consulted Mr. Kwaku Bonsam, but that the powers he had given him didn’t work. 

The success of Pentecostalism in West Africa, with its exorcisms and speaking in tongues, depends heavily on its resonance with traditional religion. But by showing that a well-known pastor had explicitly relied on juju spirits, said Professor Meyer, Mr. Kwaku Bonsam “affirmed widespread rumors that pastors had secret spiritual resources.” His popularity soared in response.        

This is absolutely fascinating and a very smart move on his part.

Oh and here he is at the Miss Ghana-USA pageant last month:

Read this story here.

And here is the story of the Mormon church leader in Europe:

In the small but cohesive Mormon community where he grew up, Hans Mattsson was a solid believer and a pillar of the church. He followed his father and grandfather into church leadership and finally became an “area authority” overseeing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints throughout Europe.  

 When fellow believers in Sweden first began coming to him with information from the Internet that contradicted the church’s history and teachings, he dismissed it as “anti-Mormon propaganda,” the whisperings of Lucifer. He asked his superiors for help in responding to the members’ doubts, and when they seemed to only sidestep the questions, Mr. Mattsson began his own investigation. 

But when he discovered credible evidence that the church’s founder, Joseph Smith, was a polygamist and that the Book of Mormon and other scriptures were rife with historical anomalies, Mr. Mattsson said he felt that the foundation on which he had built his life began to crumble. 

Around the world and in the United States, where the faith was founded, the Mormon Church is grappling with a wave of doubt and disillusionment among members who encountered information on the Internet that sabotaged what they were taught about their faith, according to interviews with dozens of Mormons and those who study the church. 

And this is a particular problem for a young religion (but not too young to be media savvy):

 Every faith has its skeptics and detractors, but the Mormon Church’s history creates special challenges. The church was born in America only 183 years ago, and its founder and prophet, Joseph Smith, and his disciples left behind reams of papers that still exist, documenting their work, exposing their warts and sometimes contradicting one another.
“The Roman Catholic Church has had 2,000 years to work through the hiccups in its history,” said Terryl L. Givens, a professor of English, literature and religion at the University of Richmond and a Mormon believer. “Mormonism is still an adolescent religion.” 

Mr. Givens and his wife, Fiona, recently presented what they called “Crucible of Doubt” sessions for questioning Mormons in England, Scotland and Ireland. Hundreds attended each event. 

“Sometimes they are just this side of leaving, and sometimes they are simply faithful members who are looking for clarity and understanding to add to their faith,” said Mr. Givens, who hosted a similar discussion in July in Provo, Utah, and has others planned in the United States. The church is not sponsoring the sessions, Mr. Givens said, but local bishops give their permission. 

Here is the NYT video of the interview

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by Salman Hameed

There is a new Pew report out that looks at Brazilian religious landscape. Brazil has has the largest Roman Catholic population (123 million) but Protestants and the unaffiliated have been making grounds for the past couple of decades. Here are the religious affiliations in Brazil:

And by numbers here:

The Pew report also looked at religious affiliations with respect to age, gender, education and urban-rural divide. Interestingly, the differences are not that significant for most categories. For example, here is the distribution with respect to age:

There is a slight age factor in the Unaffiliated group. But compare this with the US, where the age-divide is much more pronounced with this group. Here are the unaffiliated in the US:

The urban-rurual divide, however, is more pronounced in the comparison of urban and rural Brazilian populations. By the way, a staggering 84% of Brazilians live in urban areas. In any case, here is the distribution with respect to various religions:

Read the full report here.

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by Salman Hameed

I have a short article in the Magazine section of today's Pakistan Express Tribune. It focuses on the Ring Nebula - one of the most popular objects for amateur astronomers. Here is the image of the nebula from the Hubble Space Telescope:

Here is the article:

Anticipating a glorious death of our Sun  

All good things come to an end. Even the lives of stars. Located 2,300 light years away, the Ring Nebula (right) is a gorgeous announcement of the demise of a star that shone brightly for ten billion years. 

Now all that is left is a small white nucleus surrounded by gases that once were part of the star itself. Some of these gases will one day be part of another star. This is cosmic recycling at its best. 

While beautiful, this stage is temporary for the star. Most of the gases we see in the Ring Nebula were expelled only a few thousand years ago. The star at the time had bloated into a red giant and subsequently lost much of its outer material to space, leaving behind a central core about the size of the Earth. This core is called a white dwarf and is one of the densest objects in the universe. Here on Earth, a teaspoon of white dwarf material would weigh as much as a car. 

Made up mostly of Carbon and Oxygen, the white dwarf is extremely hot — about twenty times hotter than the surface of our Sun. It is the light from this white dwarf that is making some of the gases glow in the Ring Nebula. However, it does not have any energy source within, and from now on it will slowly cool down for eternity, becoming dimmer and dimmer each passing year, eventually — no longer detectable in visible light. This is the final stage — the corpse of a star that shone for ten billion years. 

This is the fate that awaits the Sun as well. Our star has been a stable source of energy for the past four-and-a-half-billion years. Algae, rodents, ferns, seagulls, ants, humans — they have all been dependent on this supply of energy. Quite amazingly, humans have figured out that our Sun will run out of its supply of fuel in another 5 billion years or so. No need to worry about it tomorrow morning. But if humans — or some form of their descendants — are to survive on scales of billions of years, then journeys to other stars will have to be undertaken. Whatever happens to us, our Sun’s last rites will also include a beautiful nebula followed by the forever cooling of its white dwarf. 

What about life around the star that formed the Ring Nebula? We have not detected any planets there as yet and we certainly have no idea if there ever was any life, let alone intelligence, out there. However, if there were any worlds inhabited by complex, intelligent beings, then I hope they had stumbled upon science, figured out the impending death of their star, and made alternative plans. They may have implemented mass-evacuation to another planet around a nearby star system. They may have left a billion years before the death of their star. The beauty of Ring Nebula may now be bitter sweet as they watch the demise of their original home star. Or maybe this life form never developed the ability to leave its solar system. Then most likely all of this life is now gone — just one of many mass extinctions that must happen quite often in the universe.

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I did not talk about it in the article, but there is another spectacular image of the Ring Nebula that combines observations of Hubble Space Telescope with that of the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) in Chile (see the image below). Here you can see wispy hydrogen gas (red) that surrounds the Ring Nebula. It is the result of earlier ejection of gas from the star.

Now the Ring Nebula has been studied for centuries (it was identified in the late 18th century). However, these new images allow astronomers to understand the three-dimensional aspect of the nebula and indeed, the central part is nebula is more like an American football (or a rugby for those living in other parts of the world) - but we just happen to be seeing it from the top. This is not surprising as most objects like this have very complex structures. You can read the NASA press release here. Also, here is a short video that use animations to show the shape of the Ring Nebula:



Enjoy!

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by Salman Hameed

Religion (or non-religion) is a matter of personal belief. But there is a common misconception that morals are tied only to religious beliefs [In case, you are interested, here is an excellent piece by Frans de Waal in the NYT that debunks this particular notion: Morals without God?. On the level of societies you can check out Societies without God: What the least religious nations can tell us about contentment, and for possible causal connections on religiosity, you can check our friend Tom Rees' paper Is Personal Insecurity a Cause of Cross-National Differences in the Intensity of Religious Belief?]. One only has to look around to see that humans are quite capable of doing bad with or without religion. Though to be fair, the same goes for the good as well. Nevertheless, the Pew Forum has a new poll out that shows that most Americans think that the growth of nonreligious is a bad thing for the society as a whole, and these views may be shaped by the confusion about the connection between morality and religion:

And, of course, this view is dependent on one's own religious affiliation (or non-affliliation):

Actually it is interesting that almost half of all Hispanic Catholics - the largest amongst the religious denominations identified - think that the growth of nonreligious does not make any difference. I think, at the very least, it should not matter, In fact, a greater diversity of beliefs (including non-belief) would possibly be a good for the society as more people will come in contact with a whole array of views that they do not share. In case you were wondering, the Pew poll was in response to the rising number of Americans who do not identify themselves with any religion (see my earlier posts here and here):

You can read Pew report on the rising number of religiously unaffiliated here and the latest report on the reaction of Americans here.

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by Salman Hameed

The unrest in Turkey continues. I have two articles below. The first one deals looks beyond the usual secular-religious divide when discussing Turkey, and the second looks at the role of social identity in the formation of attitudes towards Turkish foreign policy. First here is an article by Ateş Altınordu on The Immanent Frame:

Does the actual picture of Occupy Gezi confirm the existence of a deep fault line between secular and religious citizens that Erdoğan and the New York Times alike posit? It is true that most religious-conservative citizens are not participating in Occupy Gezi, and it is rather safe to assume that many maintain their support for the AKP and for Erdoğan himself. However, there are many significant crosscurrents that complicate this picture. First, Occupy Gezi brings together many different groups, including Kemalists, liberal-minded secular citizens, environmentalists, revolutionary socialists, anarchists, feminists, LGBT groups, highly politicized activists, and young people who simply oppose police brutality and the government’s authoritarian policies. As opposed to what Erdoğan has repeatedly implied, Occupy Gezi is fundamentally different from the Republican Rallies of 2007, which were organized by militant secularist organizations and aimed to prepare the ground for a military coup against the AKP government. While Kemalist groups may chant “we are the soldiers of Mustafa Kemal” during the demonstrations, calls for the military to intervene in the political process are hardly ever heard. Moreover, all participants in the movement seem to share a general respect for religious citizens.
On June 4, the day after newspapers close to the AKP started to advance Erdoğan’s agenda by depicting Occupy Gezi as an anti-religious movement, movement participants announced that alcohol should not be consumed on the park’s premises that day as a sign of respect for the Miraç Kandili, a Muslim holiday commemorating the prophet’s ascent to heaven. Throughout the day, volunteers offered thousands of traditional kandil bagels to anyone entering the park. 

More importantly, while constituting a minority in the movement, many pious Muslims, AKP voters, and some Islamic organizations have participated in the protests. One social justice-oriented Islamic group in particular, Anti-Capitalist Muslims, has been part of the campaign against the destruction of the park from the very beginning and has a major presence in the movement.

And here is the broader outlook:

The liberation theology of the Anti-Capitalist Muslims shows that it is difficult to categorize the religious circles in Turkey as a single, uniform bloc under the unbreakable spell of Erdoğan’s AKP. The same is true for secular people, many of whom have learned to respect the religious practices of their fellow citizens, including their right to wear headscarves in public institutions. The transformative potential that emerges from the respectful coexistence of different political orientations and social groups in Occupy Gezi should not be underestimated, both in the park and in the movement more broadly. As soccer fans who use homophobic epithets in their slogans against Erdoğan are learning from the LGBT groups in the park why this is problematic, and as many Turks in the movement increasingly seem to empathize with the Kurds now that they are also experiencing indiscriminate police violence and witnessing the indifference of the mainstream media, a transformation is likewise taking place in the relationship between secular and religious citizens who together protest the authoritarian policies of the government and the violent practices of the police. The careful respect that the mostly secular participants in the movement exhibited on Miraç Kandili, voluntarily giving up drinking in public—although they vigorously defend their right to drink in public—and Eliaçık’s statement of solidarity with alcohol drinkers are manifestations of this rapprochement. 

What is happening within the confines of the Gezi Park has its limits, of course, in terms of its wider ramifications, but it is indicative of larger political learning processes in a society increasingly suffering from the authoritarian tendencies of the government, Erdoğan’s paternalistic style of rule, and the disproportionate use of force by the police against groups as diverse as soccer fans, university students, and environmental activists.

Read the full article here.

Here is an interesting article in the latest issue of International Journal of Middle East Studies: Social Identity and Attitudes toward Foreign Policy: Evidence from a Youth Survey in Turkey by Sabri Ciftci (you probably will need subscription to access the full article). Here is the abstract:

This paper focuses on the relationship between social identity based on national, religious, or international affiliations and attitudes toward foreign policy in the Turkish context. Evidence is drawn from an original survey conducted among university students in Turkey. The results show that students' social identity has a significant correlation with their perceptions of foreign policy. Most Turkish university students provide conditional support for the new directions in Turkey's foreign policy, but those with an Islamic identity appear to be more supportive of the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi's (Justice and Development Party) policies. Most university students believe that Turkey's future lies in the European Union and the Central Asian Turkic republics rather than in the Middle East. Overall, the perceptions of educated youth toward foreign policy are shaped by both social identity and their conceptions of national interest.

His sample of 800 university students from Cumhuriyet University in central Turkey span a broad spectrum of political, ethnic, and religious identities.   So couple of things I wanted to highlight. First, it seems that less than half of these students think that Turkey should be a member of the EU:

Second, this is how these students define themselves in terms if their national and international identity:

But when you look at their perceptions of Turkey's future, most of them see it in terms of EU and/or the  Turkic Republics:

Ciftci concludes this part of the results as follows:

Moving beyond these general perceptions, the young and educated segment of the Turkish electorate believes that Turkey's future lies in the EU or the Turkic republics. Only a small fraction of the respondents has an orientation toward the Middle East or the Islamic world. It appears that individuals develop attitudes differently about the goals and the future of foreign policy. When it comes to the former, most educated youth appear to emphasize foreign policy strategies that are more in line with a nationalistic perception of state identity. This view is compatible with Davutoğlu's strategic depth approach, which favors a multidimensional policy exploiting multiple identities. Since Davutoğlu has implemented his foreign policy vision as Turkish foreign minister, the finding shows that university students carry orientations that are in line with this theoretically inspired policy framework. Furthermore, students' orientations appear to be in line with the scholarly approach explaining foreign policy activities with notions such as balance of power, geopolitics, and economic interests rather than with accounts describing the new directions in Turkish foreign policy as an axis shift or Middle Easternization.

This paper was published before the Gezi protests. Nevertheless, it provides an interesting window into the identity perceptions of Turkish university students.

_________________
Ceftci, S. (2013), Social Identity and attitudes toward foreign policy: Evidence from a youth survey in Turkey, International Journal of Middle East Studies / Volume 45 / Issue 01 / February 2013, pp 25-43. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0020743812001249

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by Salman Hameed

There has been silence on Irtiqa for the last 10 days. Hmm....and the silence started right after I had a post about the NSA wire tapping story. Unless it is just a coincidence, I think this calls for some conspiracy theories. But here all I can say is that I have been dealing with a new life-form whose DNA has atoms that were processed inside stars, but now this molecule also contains some of my genetic information (Hmm...and this is where you queue the X-Files music):

But as this life-form learns that humans sleep for more than 2 hours at a stretch, the posts will resume their regularity here. In the mean time, here is Spock on laziness in The Lazy Song:


Bruno Mars - Lazy Song from Furlined on Vimeo.

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by Salman Hameed

Well, this lack of official recognition of Islam is a surprise to me. The reasons for this non-recognition are complex, and at least some of the blame is shared by Italy's Muslims as well. But I found this out from an article written by my nephew, Mustafa Hameed (woo hoo!). Here it is from the Washington Post: Lacking Recognition, Italy's Muslims Face an Uncertain Future:

In a country dominated by Roman Catholics, Muslims make up Italy’s second-largest religious group. A Pew study estimated that more than 1.5 million Muslims live in Italy, a number projected to double by 2030. 

Though it has more adherents than several faiths with official status — including Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism — Islam is not an officially recognized religion in Italy. Consequently, no Muslim organizations can receive funding through an Italian law that allows taxpayers to allocate a portion of their taxes to a religious group of their choice.

While negative views of Islam in this Catholic nation have played a part, the sheer size and diversity of Italy’s Muslim population may be among the biggest obstacles to the community’s recognition, said Mustafa Cenap Aydin, director of the Istituto Tevere in Rome, a group that promotes intercultural dialogue. 

“The tiny Buddhist community, it’s not a challenge, you can recognize it,” Aydin said. “But (with Muslims) we’re talking about 1.5 million people.” 

Aydin mentioned another hurdle to Muslim integration in Italy: ”Maybe 95 percent of Muslims are not citizens here,” he explained. That includes men like Jahan, who followed his brother to Rome two years ago in search of work. 

“Muslims in Italy are facing the challenge of situating Islam in Italy,” said Abdel Latif Chalikandi, a lawyer and cultural mediator at the Mosque of Rome. “Are you a Muslim or an Italian?” 

Chalikandi himself moved to Rome from Kerala, India, after meeting his wife, Sabrina Lei, a Catholic-born Italian convert to Islam who has translated the works of several Islamic writers into Italian. Together, the two are working to publish more books about Islam in Italy. 

Making a new life in a new country is not easy. Besides new languages, there are new foods and new customs. Fulfilling Muslim religious requirements may also be difficult.
“Italian Muslims have complete religious freedom,” Chalikandi said. “They have the right to pray, they have the right to fast. But there are, having said that, some issues.” 

He said religious obligations such as circumcision, Muslim-specific burial grounds and halal meats can pose problems for Italian Muslims. Food is a particularly sensitive issue among Italian Muslims who cannot eat pork or drink alcoholic beverages. 

Still, the religious prohibition against eating pork has not deterred all Muslims. Sharif Ahmed is a waiter at a traditional Italian restaurant near Piazza Navona, across the Tiber River from the Vatican. A recent transplant from Delhi, India, he appeared at ease presenting plates of salami and prosciutto and pouring wine for customers. Ahmed said that he does not eat pork or drink alcohol.

But things are complicated at the intersection of domestic politics, immigration policies, and cultural adjustments:

But beyond dietary differences, darker sources of dissonance are often at work. Islamophobia is alive and well in the country, particularly among conservative politicians who blame the country’s economic woes on immigrants. In many circles, being Muslim is synonymous with being an immigrant. 

But worse than brash politicians are forces within the Muslim community that put it at odds with Italian society, Aydin said. In 2009, a Moroccan immigrant murdered his 18-year-old daughter after he found her dating an older Italian man, reinforcing stereotypes of honor killings and misogyny. 

“Weeks and weeks the Italian newspapers are talking about this tragic event,” Aydin said. “They’d pose questions in these terms: ‘What do you think about this Pakistani girl who was killed since she was dating an Italian guy?’” 

Before Muslims can adopt an active role together, however, they must organize. “There is a crisis in Muslim leadership and knowledge,” said Chalikandi. 

The Muslim community, Chalikandi added, badly needs thinkers familiar with Islamic jurisprudence as well as Italian cultural norms and practices. 

The Italian government has taken a number of steps in recent years to assimilate Muslims. In 2005, the Ministry of the Interior established the Council for Italian Islam to foster dialogue between the government and the Italian Muslim community. The council was meant to be an umbrella body coordinating the country’s various Islamic organizations. That would have provided the structure for Islam to be legally recognized as a religion eligible to receive tax money. 

“The Italian state wanted to recognize the religion,” Chalikandi lamented, “but unfortunately, the Muslim organizations and leaders couldn’t get a consensus and they couldn’t sign that accord with the government.” 

Despite the divisions, the Council for Italian Islam is still intact and could yet serve as a useful forum for the country’s various Islamic organizations. 

Still, both Chalikandi and Aydin said efforts to organize the different groups representing the Islamic community of Italy may be a long-term project. 

“Muslims are learning,” Chalikandi said. “And still for Islam there is no second or third generation here yet.”

Read the full article here.

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