Actually I think analyses like these are pointless exercises in exegesis. There isn’t any defensive value to such a “tu quoque” approach and it just gives total jafis like Andrew Bostom another chance to spout their nonsense.

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I understand the need and right of academia to perform critical examination of religion, but this seems a pretty quixotic agenda. It seems like he’s more intoxicated with his own status as academic freethinker than performing any serious academic inquiry. There’s far more evidence for Mohammed’s SAW existence than there was for Jesus AS.

*astaghfirullah.

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Read more: http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1970490,00.html#ixzz0hcMebqCm

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Malaysia has defended a decision not to prosecute two Muslim journalists accused of desecrating a communion wafer in a Catholic church, saying they acted out of “sheer ignorance”.

The archbishop of Kuala Lumpur Murphy Pakiam has criticised the government’s “failure to act” over the incident, in which the pair joined a Catholic service to investigate claims Muslims were illegally converting.

“The journalists have displayed utmost disrespect for the Catholic community when they admit receiving and spitting out the Holy Communion,” he told a press conference Thursday.

However, the government’s top lawyer, Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail, said the pair did not understand the significance of the wafer, which Catholics believe represents the body of Jesus Christ.

“The actions of the two reporters may have hurt the feelings of the people but I was satisfied that they did not intend to offend anyone. It was an act of sheer ignorance,” he said in a statement late Thursday.

According to the BBC report the two journalists spat out the communion wafer.

Not that some Muslims, and certainly not those in Malaysia, have a reputation for getting upset at something they deem offensive.

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Very interesting talk, starts with historical copies of Qu’ran, moves on to other Islamic artifacts.

http://www.theismaili.org/cms/945/

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Traditionalist: This groups views the origins of ‘modern science’ as starting with the Reformation, which led onto the Enlightenment, when nature became desacrilised and an object of mere utility to be exploited. Whilst there have been many advances, this view of nature has led to waste, greed and destruction of the environment. Traditionalists have a well-defined ontology on which their entire philosophy rests (which differentiates them from other categories), and regard other approaches as superficial or limited in their scope, lacking the holistic approach they advocate. Critics deem they promote elitism and mysticism, without offering any real solutions to alleviate problems amongst Muslims. The leading exponent of this view is Seyyed Hossein Nasr.

Transformationist: Although useful, ’secular’ knowledges, including the physical sciences, must undergo an espitemological correction to be of any benefit to Muslims, i.e. they must be ‘Islamized’. Put simply, an ethical limit is placed on what can and can’t be researched. However, the basic division of knowledge is still similar to ’secular’ disciplines. Traditionalists and Relativists view Islamization as superficial as well as glossing over the hard sciences. The most well-known advocate of this view was Ismail Raji al-Faruqi, although Syed Muhammad Naqui al-Attas was the first to coin the term ‘Islamization’.

Relativist: Each culture should develop a science based on their cultural values, limitations and needs (i.e. you have Islamic science, Western science, Chinese science, and so on). Science is only good insofar as it serves the community or humanity, so research should be conducted on pressing problems (e.g. research into agricultural techniques). They are the smallest of the major groupings, because their critiques (not criticisms) of ‘modern science’ rely on the social sciences, something largely ignored or marginalised by many Muslims. Anyone familiar with the Science wars would recognise them as being advocates who view science as ’social knowledge’, and  driven by other concerns like profit and empire. One of the most well-known (English-language) proponents is Ziauddin Sardar (though I think he is, or has become, a ’softer’ advocate of this approach).

Assimilationist: There is no such thing as ‘Western’ or ‘Islamic’ science. Only good and bad science. People who promote Islamic science and Bucaillism are doing their fellow believers a big disservice by inhibiting the true aims of science: unfettered inquiry into the truth. Some suggest science should be promoted to enable societies to alleviate suffering. Other advocates of this assimilationist approach suggest that mere pragmatism is not good enough; the culture of science must be absorbed by Muslims too. In general, they have a linear view of the history of science. Pervez Hoodbhoy is one of the leading voices from this category.

Bucaillian: Following Dr. Maurice Baucille, this group tries to marry-up scientific findings with verses from the Qur’an or Prophetic narratives. In doing so, they hope science will prove their religious beliefs. Bucaillism is popular amongst Muslims with a ’secular’ education and forms one of the major strains of contemporary Muslim apologetics.

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Centuries ago the greatest poets of Persia, like Hafiz and Rumi, stripped away the mullahs’ religious pretensions and exposed their stupidity. Today, however, those same mullahs have taken control of the Iranian republic. The answer lies just as much in the domain of world politics as in theology. Khomeini developed the doctrine known as “guardianship of the clergy,” which gives the mullahs much wider powers than they generally exercised in the past.

—

Ayatollah Khomeini was quite content to keep science and Islam separate—unlike Pakistan’s leaders who have made numerous absurd attempts to marry the two. Khomeini once remarked that there is no such thing as Islamic mathematics. Nor did he take a position against Darwinism. In fact, Iran is one of the rare Muslim countries where the theory of evolution is taught.

Hoodbhoy hardly provides any better answers.

http://www.meforum.org/2593/pervez-amirali-hoodbhoy-islam-science

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