The Independent/London
Plans to hold a conference on Islam and evolution at one of the country’s top scientific universities had to be abandoned after a torrent of opposition from Muslim students, The Independent has learned.
The Deen Institute, a Muslim debating forum that promotes critical thinking, had hoped to hold a conference titled ‘Have Muslims misunderstood evolution?’ at Imperial College London early next year.
Invited speakers included Muslim scientists, imams who have promoted the compatibility of Islam and evolution as well as those who preach a form of Islamic creationism.
The organisers had hoped to stage the event at Imperial, one of the country’s foremost universities for scientific exploration and debate, in co-operation with the local Islamic student society. But the Deen Institute said it had to pull out after concerted opposition from Islamic students who support creationism.
It is now being held without input from any Muslim student society at Logan Hall, a conference centre owned by the University of London. “We eventually had to give up hope of getting any support from student societies because it was seen as simply too controversial,” Adam Deen, co-founder of the institute, told The Independent.
Deen, who describes himself as a “conservative Muslim” who encourages critical thinking, said he was surprised to receive such opposition at a place of scientific study.
“It’s symptomatic of a bigger problem in the Muslim world where people representing practical Muslims have to be seen to be more literalist,” he said. “It’s almost like there’s an intellectual mafia movement who won’t allow any freedom of thought.”
Usman Siddiqui, president of Imperial’s Islamic student society, insisted that the society was unable to co-host the event for “logistical reasons” rather than ideological ones.
“I did not say that Imperial ISoc have no qualms with the event – it’s just that we did not reach the stage where we were to make that decision,” he said. “They wanted to use Imperial as a venue, it didn’t work out, and now they have a new venue.”
But one source involved with preparations for the original planned event said: “As soon as it went live I was inundated with complaints. It’s sad because student societies should be desperate to host this kind of debate.”
The row illustrates how controversial it has become in the Muslim world to discuss the compatibility of science and Islam, and whether critical thinking is being closed down by more literalist schools of thought.
Until recently evolution caused little friction, with the majority of Muslim jurists and academics broadly accepting Darwin’s findings – albeit in a theistic sense.
But in recent years creationism – much of it inspired by Christian fundamentalist movements in the United States – has begun to receive wider acceptance.
Much of this new-found enthusiasm for attacking evolution has been pushed by Harun Yahya, a prominent Turkish theologian whose writings have been seized upon by literalists and by other groups who exhibit a theological suspicion of science.