Meeting at the Boundaries of Islam & Science

Illustration by an 11th century Islamic scientist
 of phases of the moon (from Wikipedia)

If a March 2011 interview with Nidhal Guessoum (here) is any indication, the relationship between science and religion is even more an issue in West Asia (a.k.a the Middle East) than it is here in the U.S.  Guessoum is a professor of physics at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and has recently authored a book on the subject of Islam and science, which is entitled Islam's Quantum Question.

In his interview, Prof. Guessoum recalls that Islam has a rich scientific heritage going back a thousand years, which has been largely lost in more recent centuries.  Today, science in the Arab nations is dominated by religious concerns and a need to bend science to fit into the mold of religion.  He believes that science has declined in the Arab world for three related reasons: dictatorships, corruption, and nepotism & cronyism.  Science requires a free environment to thrive, and it has not had that in West Asia and North Africa.  The Arab nations, furthermore, see the decline of religion in the West and link that decline in their minds to the influence of science.  Even today there are relatively few non-religious academics and those few must maintain a low profile.

Still, Guessoum sees grounds for a dialogue between Islam and the West concerning science, one that would be beneficial to the Arab world because it would foster a more realistic attitude about science and how it is approached.  It would teach the Arab world that it cannot simply pick and choose what it wants to believe and not believe regarding scientific findings.  It would also inspire greater thought concerning the "proper relationship between faith and reason," an issue of importance in the Muslim world.  He believes that the West would benefit as well, esp. since Arab academia has never tried to keep religion "under wraps."  If I understand this correctly, Guessoum believes that the Arab world would benefit from an encounter with an independent science that pursues its studies irrespective of religious agendas and the West would benefit from an encounter with a culture that is not as hung up on the relationship of science and religion as we are in Europe and North America.

Guessoum's proposed dialogue between Islam and science offers an intriguing insight into just how important the strategy of dialogue (listening to learn, speaking to share) can be in our conflicted modern world.  It also points in a direction that we would do well to consider, namely that religion and science are neither enemies or allies but just two human endeavors that can benefit from each other's views and wisdom in several different ways.