Speaker Interviews from Have Muslims Misunderstood Evolution?
39:49
21 Jan 2013
Evolution, Biology
Ehab Abouheif
Yasir Qadhi
This video presents edited interviews with the speakers at the Deen Institute’s January 2013 conference in London entitled, Have Muslims Misunderstood Evolution? Seven questions are presented as text cards, and the speakers’ responses are then given. Every question does not include responses from every speaker, and the interviewees do not engage one another’s responses.
The speakers all thought that it was important to present multiple perspectives on a controversial topic like evolution. Some of the speakers had more hopes of changing minds than others, but they spoke about how important it was to hear and consider other views. The suggestion that all knowledge comes from God, and that studying nature is part of studying God was repeated by several of the speakers. The speakers agreed that many people (not only Muslims) have misunderstandings about evolution, including the length of time over which it has occurred. Yasir Qadhi noted that some of the misconceptions about evolution come from outside Islam rather than from within Islam itself. Yasir Qadhi emphasized that each person needs to keep in mind what he or she does or does not know; he emphasized that he would not present any biological evidence, since he was not a biologist. Usama Hasan suggested that a further topic for discussion would be human rights.
The speakers presented here are: Ehab Abouheif (biologist, McGill University, Canada), Usama Hasan (physicist and mathematician, Quillam Foundation, UK), Fatima Jackson (biologist, Howard University, United States), Yasir Qadhi (theologian, Rhodes College, United States), and Oktar Babuna (neurosurgeon, TV anchorman, Turkey).
The questions asked were:
1. Do you think there is a need for an organisation like The Deen Institute and a conference such as this one? (0:28)
2. Why did you attend this conference? (3:58)
3. What are your expectations of the conference? (8:51)
4. What are the main misconceptions, if any, that Muslim hold about evolution and Islam? (16:30)
5. What is your view on the relationship between Islam and Science? (22:47)
6. What topic(s) would you like to see addressed at the Deen Institute’s upcoming conferences? (26:53)
7. Are there any final comments you would like to make? (32:07)
Unfortunately, there seems to have been a technical problem during the panel’s presentation, so it is available as audio only, and therefore has not been evaluated as a part of the Portal. The four-hour version of the conference is available online here. The podcast version of the panel is available here.
Evaluation:
The material on Islam is within the bounds of what Muslims have historically understood as acceptable.
The scientific material presented here is limited. All of the scientific material presented by the speakers positively — that is, not presented as a misunderstanding — are contemporary consensus views, with the exception of the discussion of the “pseudo-scientific nature of Darwinism” (by Oktar Babuna, starting at 9:46), which does not conform with consensus views.
There is insufficient historical material on which to base an evaluation.
About Ehab Abouheif
Ehab Abouheif received his PhD from Duke University (North Carolina) in 2002. He began teaching at McGill University in 2004, after post-docs at the University of Chicago and University of California, Berkeley. He is now an associate professor and Canada Research Chair at McGill University. His research focuses on evolutionary development, particularly in ants. He was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim fellowship in 2017. Abouheif is also a co-founder and co-director for the McGill Centre for Islam and Science. He discusses Islam and evolution widely.
Abouheif has many publications, including chapters in The Tree of Life (2014) and Islam and evolution education (in press), and articles in journals such as the International Journal of Developmental Biology, Science, and Evolution and Development.
Abouheif has a Facebook page. Although he is frequently mentioned on Twitter, he does not himself seem to tweet. He served as an advisor for the Science and Islam Video Portal project.
Select Bibliography:
“The Abouheif Lab: Evolutionary & Developmental Biology.” McGill University Biology Department. Accessed 31 January 2018.
“Ehab Abouheif“, Wikipedia. Accessed 31 January 2018.
“Ehab Abouheif“, Canadian Arab Institute. Accessed 31 January 2018.
“Ehab Abouheif“, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Fellows. Accessed 31 January 2018.
About Yasir Qadhi
Born in 1975 to Pakistani parents in Houston, Texas, Yasir Qadhi is among the most influential and controversial Islamic scholars in the world. An incredibly smart young man, Qadhi graduated two years early from high school as valedictorian and went on to earn a Bachelors of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Houston. While at the University of Houston, Qadhi became interested in pursuing Islamic studies and eventually studied at the Islamic University of Madinah in Saudi Arabia. There he earned a second Bachelors Degree in Hadith, and a Masters in Islamic Theology. He then attended Yale University where he earned two more Masters degrees in Islamic Theology and Philosophy, respectively, and is expected to receive his Ph.D. in Islamic Studies in the near future.
Qadhi began his career in Islamic scholarship as studying through a Salafist lens, though his views have tempered over the years. In addition, on Christmas Day 2009, one of his former students from the Al Maghrib Institute (an Islamic Studies institute with locations around the world) was convicted of attempting to blow up a plane headed to Detroit by sewing a bomb into his underwear. More of Qadhi’s former students have also been convicted in terrorist activities. This led to Qadhi being investigated by the US government and he eventually emerged as a spokesperson for a nonmilitant portion of Salafi Islam.
As of 2015, Qadhi is still an instructor and Dean of Academic Affairs at the Al Maghrib Institute. He is also the Resident Scholar at the Memphis Islamic Center in Memphis, Tennessee in addition to lecturing as an Assistant Professor at Rhodes College, Tennessee. Qadhi is very active on social media with Facebook and Twitter pages amassing close to a million followers. His articles as Resident Religious Advisor to Muslim Matters, a popular Islamic blog, can be found on the website.
Selected Bibliography:
“Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Accessed 18 June 2015.
Elliott, Andrea. “Why Yasir Qadhi Wants to Talk About Jihad.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 19 Mar. 2011. Accessed 18 June 2015.
Qadhi, Yasir. “Dr. Yasir Qadhi.” Muslim Matters. N.p., n.d. Accessed 18 June 2015.
Qadhi, Yasir. Facebook. Facebook, n.d.
Qadhi, Yasir. Twitter. Twitter, n.d.
“Rhodes College | Faculty & Staff.” Rhodes College | Faculty & Staff. Rhodes College, n.d. Accessed 18 June 2015.
“Yasir Qadhi.” PBS. PBS, n.d. Accessed 18 June 2015.