New
Delhi, 05 November 2004
They say that in War it is
necessary to understand the psyche of ones
adversary to come out on top! The article below,
written by Prof. Pervez Hoodbhoy, a professor of
Physics at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad,
Pakistan came to our notice and we post it as it
makes interesting reading. He describes in some
detail the Muslim psyche. Perhaps it may give some
insights to our military planners and thinkers?
Being a professor of physics
Hoodbhoy is only convinced by a cause and effect
reality and has no time for the power of prayer,
faith, miracles, mass meditation etc. He obviously
does not believe that faith can move mountains
science is all that matters!
Miracles, Wars and
Politics
By Pervez Hoodbhoy*
On the morning of the first Gulf
War (1991), having just heard the news of the US
attack on Baghdad, I walked into my office in the
physics department in a state of numbness and
depression. Mass death and devastation would surely
follow. I was dismayed, but not surprised, to
discover my PhD student, a militant activist of the
Jamaat-i-Islami's student wing in Islamabad, in a
state of euphoria. Islam's victory, he said, is
inevitable because God is on our side and the
Americans cannot survive without alcohol and women.
He reasoned that neither would be available in Iraq,
and happily concluded that the Americans were
doomed. Then he reverentially closed his eyes and
thrice repeated "Inshallah" (if Allah so
wills).
Two weeks later, after the rout of
Saddam's army and 70,000 dead Iraqis, I reminded him
of his predictions. He stumbled an explanation but
soon gave up. Years later, soon after earning a
reasonably good doctorate in quantum field theory
and elementary particles, he quit academia and put
his considerable physics skills to use in a very
different direction. Today he heads a department
that deals with missile guidance systems in a
defence organization that makes nuclear weapons and
precision missiles.
Belief in miracles, and that ones'
prayers can persuade divine intervention in matters
of the physical world, is an integral part of most
cultures and beliefs. In Pakistan today where
the bulk of the population has been through the
Islamised education initiated by General Zia-ul-Haq
in the 1980's supernatural intervention is
widely held responsible for natural calamities and
diseases, car accidents and plane crashes, acquiring
or losing personal wealth, success or failure in
examinations, or determining matters of love and
matrimony. In Pakistan no aircraft
whether of Pakistan International Airlines or
a private carrier registered in Pakistan can
take off until appropriate prayers are recited. Wars
certainly cannot be won without Allah's help, but He
has also been given the task of winning cricket
matches for Pakistan. The last mentioned is serious
business, lest anyone think otherwise.
And it makes the Almighty's job a
particularly difficult one whenever there are
Muslims playing on the other sides' team. Hafizur
Rahman, an astute observer of Pakistani cricket,
recalls that when the Pakistan team won a test match
in South Africa some years ago, to the amazement of
the spectators, all team members prostrated
themselves on the cricket ground to thank Allah. But
this was a minor event compared to the national
frenzy induced by the World Cup in Australia
the erstwhile prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, called
upon the entire nation to pray for a final win. Even
the clergy, who normally condemn cricket as
frivolous entertainment, joined in the hysteria.
When Pakistan lost the match, Chaudhry Shujaat
Hussain, who became prime minister in 2004, had an
interesting explanation. In his view, "the PTV
(Pakistan Television) song that boasted that we
would win, did not contain the word Inshallah. That
is why we lost."
Drought may not be as important a
matter as cricket, but last week the government of
Pakistan issued a warning the rivers are
running dry, water reservoirs are nearing the danger
mark, and hydro-electricity production may soon be
discontinued. Even as I type this paragraph on a
Friday afternoon, millions of the faithful in
mosques across Pakistan are obeying the government's
call for 'namaz-i-istisqa' (prayers for rain). Next
year instead of building dams, lining canals,
embarking on water conservancy strategies, or doing
something to control Pakistan's exploding population
the government will presumably put the
pressure on God again by summoning the masses. Will
It Rain If You Pray?
The history of myths and miracles
in pre-Reformation Christianity, of their growth in
earlier phases, and their decline under Renaissance
thinking, is an extremely interesting and relevant
subject for those who wish to understand the state
of science and society in Muslim countries today.
The fundamental question then was, and remains
today, the following does God suspend the
laws of physics in response to the actions of human
beings (in which case miracles can happen)? Or has
God turned over the day-to-day matters of running
the universe to the laws of physics that he put into
place at the beginning (in this case miracles cannot
happen)?
Following the lead of European
Renaissance thinkers, Muslim reformers of the 19th
century, particularly Syed Ahmad Khan, argued that
miracles as commonly understood cannot
and do not happen. As a religious scholar who wrote
a tafseer (interpretation) of the Qur'an, Syed Ahmad
Khan insisted that the miracles mentioned in the
Qur'an must be understood in broad allegorical terms
rather than literally. Following the Mutazillite
tradition of early Islam he, together with various
19th century Arab modernists, insisted on an
interpretation of the Qur'an that was in conformity
with the observed truths of science, thereby doing
away with such commonly held beliefs as the Noah's
Great Flood and Adam's descent from heaven. It was a
risky proposition that brought them closer to modern
scientific thought, on the one hand, and severe
condemnation from the orthodox of those times. But
those 19th century battles appear to be forgotten
today.
Looking at these old writings one
wonders how those Muslim thinkers dared to engage so
boldly in such controversial matters. But they did,
and today we dare not. This is an indication of the
profound philosophical and intellectual regression
of the Muslim world over the last two centuries.
My discussion in a recent seminar
in Lahore of the history of miracles,
cause-and-effect in ancient Islam (there was greater
acceptance then than today!), and description of
rainfall as a physical process that cannot be
influenced by prayer, drew an angry reaction from a
professor at an elite university. Subsequently, an
email was circulated to the entire student body and
beyond, an excerpt of which is reproduced below:
The fact that rainfall sometimes
is caused in response to prayers is a matter of
human experience. Although I cannot narrate an
incident directly, I know [this] from the
observations of people who would not exaggerate. The
problem is that Dr Hoodbhoy has narrowed down his
mind to be influenced by only those facts that could
be explained by the cause-and-effect relationship.
That's a classic example of academic prejudice. Our
world is not running on the principle of a causal
relationship. It is running the way it is being run
by its Master. Man has discovered that, generally
speaking, the physical phenomena of our world follow
the principle of cause-and-effect. However, that may
not always happen, because the One who is running it
has never committed Himself to stick to that
principle.
I responded with the following
points:
Prof. X admits that he has never
personally witnessed rainfall in consequence to
prayers, but confidently states that this is 'a
matter of human experience' because he thinks some
others have seen unusual things happen. Well, there
are people who are willing to swear on oath that
they have seen Elvis's ghost. Others claim that they
have seen UFOs, horned beasts, apparitions, the dead
arise, etc. Without disputing that some of these
people might be sincere and honest, I must emphasise
that science cannot agree to this methodology. There
is no limit to the Power of people's imagination.
Unless these mysterious events are recorded on
camera, we cannot accept them as factual
occurrences.
Rain is a physical process
(evaporation, cloud formation, nucleation,
condensation). It is complicated, because the
atmospheric motion of gases needs many variables for
a proper description. However, it obeys exactly the
same physical laws as deduced by looking at gases in
a cylinder, falling bodies, and so forth. Personally
I would be most interested to know whether prayers
can also cause the reversal of much simpler kinds of
physical processes. For example, can a stone be made
to fall upward instead of downward? Or can heat be
made to flow from a cold body to a hot body by
appropriate spiritual prompting? If prayers can
cause rain to fall from a blue sky, then all physics
and all science deserves to be trashed.
I am afraid that the track record
for Prof. X's point of view on rain is not very
good. Saudi Arabia remains a desert in spite of its
evident holiness, and the poor peasants of Sind have
a terrible time with drought in spite of their
simplicity and piety. Geography, not earnestness of
prayer, appears to be the determining factor.
Confidence in the cause-and-effect
relationship is indeed the very foundation of
science and as a scientist, I fully stand by it.
Press the letter 'T' on your keyboard and the same
letter appears on the screen; step on the
accelerator and your car accelerates; jump out of a
window and you get hurt; put your hand on a stove
and you get burnt. Those who doubt cause-and-effect
do so at great personal peril.
Prof. X is correct in saying that
many different people (not just Muslims alone)
believe they can influence physical events through
persuading a divine authority. Indeed, in the
specific context of rainmaking, we have several
examples. Red Indians had their very elaborate
dances to please the Rain God; people of the African
bush tribes beat drums and chant; and orthodox
Hindus plead with Ram through spectacular 'yagnas'
with hundreds of thousands of the faithful. Their
methods seem a little odd to me, but I wonder if
Prof. X wishes to accord them respect and
legitimacy.
Why Science Does Matter
Specious theological beliefs,
together with reliance on miracles and
superstitions, have acted as a brake on social
progress and often rendered peoples vulnerable to
the depredations of science-based imperialism.
Muslims have been the worst sufferers.
Suffocated by Western colonizers on
the one hand, and the weight of tradition on the
other, 19th century Muslim modernizers across the
Muslim world sought new ways to revive their
societies. Reconciling Islamic theology with science
was an important challenge because, for these
pioneering individuals, science was the key
instrument for promoting rational thinking on
political and social matters. Mohammed Abduh, Rashid
Rida, Jamaluddin Afghani, Syed Ameer Ali, Syed Ahmad
Khan, and other intellectuals, sought to deal with
issues such as polygamy and purdah in Islam, the
question of slavery, the permissibility of interest,
etc.
Their success limited as it
was was important in eventually creating a
large Muslim elite that broke with traditional norms
and forms of social behaviour.
But today Islam is once again
regressing into pre-scientific thinking and
behaviour thousands of websites on science
and Islam promote the most egregious examples of
scientific crackpotism. But Muslims are not alone. A
similar regression is evident on a global scale with
anti-scientific thinking neatly dovetailing with,
and providing justification for, aggressive forms of
social and political behaviour.
This primitivism is starkly evident
in George Bush's America, which promotes Creationism
and Christian notions of the human foetus. According
to the National Science Foundation's biennial report
(April 2002) on the state of science understanding:
30% of adult Americans believe that UFOs are space
vehicles from other civilizations; 60% believe in
ESP; 40% think that astrology is scientific; 32%
believe in lucky numbers; 70% accept magnetic
therapy as scientific; and 88% accept alternative
medicine. This vast base of ignorance allows for the
rise of American neo-conservatism and the blueprint
for the New American Century; preparations for
Armageddon; and for General Boykin in Somalia to say
"my God is bigger than theirs".
In India, superstitious beliefs
were actively cultivated by the BJP and its allies.
These included the creation of astrology
departments, promotion of "Vedic"
mathematics and cosmology, and a revamping of the
school curricula. Mass hysteria promoted by
orthodox Hindus accompanied the sighting of
the "Monkey Man", followed by Muhnochwa
the "Face-Scratcher", and then the
elephant-like Lord Ganesh's alleged drinking of
milk. Charged with the notion of Hindu superiority,
and of wild notions that Hindu deities had been born
under certain mosques, Hindutva forces organized the
razing of mosques and tombs, and massacred Muslims
and Christians.
In Israel, orthodox Jews have been
the pillars of a state that is built on the notion
of religious exclusion. Israel's drive for total
military superiority, and a strong tradition of
Jewish secularism, had so far kept the orthodox at
bay. But it is unclear whether this can persist
indefinitely. For example, certain American cattle
tycoons have for years been working with Israeli
counterparts to try and breed a pure red heifer in
Israel, which, by their interpretation of chapter 19
of the Book of
Numbers, will signal the coming of
the building of the Third Temple. If they were to
succeed, it could intensify the already strong
movement within Israel to rebuild the Temple, the
event of which would ignite the Middle East, as any
new Temple must be built on the Temple Mount current
home of the Dome of The Rock, a Muslim holy site.
Zealots of all persuasions
Muslim, Hindu, Christian, and Jewish welcome
attacks on science and reason. Social
constructivists, postmodernists, and even some
feminists, have unwittingly given them yet more
ammunition by inventing specious arguments.
Improvement of the human condition demands a return
to critical reasoning and scientific analysis, a
rejection of cultural relativism, and willingness to
accept still-evolving universal norms of ethics and
human behaviour.
*Pervez Hoodbhoy is professor of
Physics at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad,
Pakistan. He may be contacted at hoodbhoy@lns.mit.edu
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