Bucailleism

Bucailleism is named after the French surgeon Dr. Maurice Bucaille.

Definition

Bucailleism is the belief that "the Qur'an prophesied the Big Bang theory, space travel and other contemporary scientific breakthroughs," and that "there are more than 1200 verses (Ayat) which can be interpreted in the light of modern science." It has been called "a fast-growing branch of Islamic fundamentalism."

Named after the French surgeon Maurice Bucaille, its proponents believe that "one of the main convincing evidences" that lead many to convert to Islam "is the large number of scientific facts in the Quran."

The doctrine is "widely taught" in Islamic secondary schools, promoted on at least one popular weekly television program in the Arab world and is advanced by "a well-funded campaign" led by the Commission on Scientific Signs in the Quran and Sunnah, based in Saudi Arabia and founded by Sheikh Abdul Majeed Zindani, a leading militant Islamist and "Specially Designated Global Terrorist". Although Bucailleism is said to be "disdained by most mainstream scholars", it has been valuable in fostering "pride in Muslim heritage", and reconciling conflicts that Muslim "students may feel between their religious beliefs and secular careers in engineering or computers."

Background

In 1976 the book The Quran, the Bible, and Science, by Dr. Maurice Bucaille was published. It purports to prove that the Qur'an, in contrast to the Bible, has always been in agreement with modern scientific discoveries. It was immensely popular "across the Muslim world" where it "sold millions of copies" and was "translated into several languages."

While "dozens of conferences" have been held on theme of scientific truths revealed by the Qur'an, the highest profile have been the International Conferences on the Scientific Signs in the Qur'an and Sunnah. As of 2006 there have been eight International Conferences on the Scientific Signs in the Qur'an and Sunnah, the first held in Islamabad in 1987, attended by "200 Muslim delegates from all over the world" and funded "by the Pakistani state to the tune of a couple of million dollars." At the seventh conference in Dubai, "more than 150 scientists and researchers" attended.

One of the highlights at the Eighth International Conference in Kuwait was the announcement of a possible cure for AIDS based on "a herbal extract that was prescribed in the Prophetic Sunnah for the treatment of other ailments."

The debut of a 14-volume Encyclopedia on the Scientific Signs in the Qur'an and Sunnah has also been announced by the International Commission on the Scientific Signs in the Qur'an and Sunnah. the encyclopedia has been "partially translated into English", with hopes for translation into "18 other languages."

Criticism

Accuracy

Gamal Soltan, a political scientist at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies protests that the approach of starting with a conclusion from the Qur'an or Sunna (e.g. the Qur’an says the body has 360 joints) and then work toward proving that conclusion, corrupts the scientific method. In the case of the belief in the body having 360 joints, it has meant counting "things that some orthopedists might not call a joint."

Other critics protest against claims by Bucailleists such as that the body has 360 joints or that the earth has seven layers:

Islamic scientists tend to use each other as sources, creating an illusion that the work has been validated by research. The existence of 360 joints, in fact, is not accepted in medical communities; rather, the number varies from person to person, with an average of 307. These days most geologists divide Earth’s crust into 15 [not 7] major zones, or tectonic plates.

Theoretical physicist Parvez Hoodbhoy of Pakistan identifies:

...the problem with such claims to ownership is that they lack an explanation for why quantum mechanics, molecular genetics, etc., had to await discovery elsewhere. Nor is any kind of testable prediction ever made. No reason is offered as to why antibiotics, aspirin, steam engines, electricity, aircraft, or computers were not first invented by Muslims. But even to ask such questions is considered offensive.

The historian, Michael Cook, suggests that proof of divine origin by prediction of scientific fact carries "a certain risk: science may move on, leaving scripture stranded with some latter-day equivalent of the long-discredited phlogiston theory of combustion. Not surprisingly, the more sophisticated [Quranic] commentators do not engage in this activity ..."

Others unconvinced of a Qur’an as dispenser of scientific truths, argue some of these scientific facts were known in the Middle East centuries before the revelation of the Qur'an - for example found in passages that they argue are rephrasings of the Hebrew Bible - or were also "predicted" by non-scientists with no claims of divine inspiration. Criticisms are also presented based on the translations and context of the verses presented as scientific facts.

Alleged Qur'anic predictions have also been called "vague descriptions of natural phenomena" employing "stretched or arbitrary" interpretations. Alleged Quranic references in particular to the expanding universe, parallel universes, and cosmic structural hierarchies have been called "blatantly wrong." Anti-Bucailleist arguments do not necessarily argue in favor of unbelief, since as one says, "God does not stand or fall depending on whether our scriptures know their physics."

Methods

Complaints about the methods of "Bucailleists" include the use of endorsements by Western non-Muslim scientists. One of the Bucailleists most widely circulated works is the book "A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam," which quotes several non-Muslim scientists in praise of the predictive power, divinity, etc. of the Qur'an. However, in a 2002 story in the American newspaper 'Wall Street Journal', several non-Muslim scientists spoke of questionable practices used by Bucailleists to cultivate scientists and coax statements from them, including lavish entertaining, untrue promises to be “completely neutral,” and hard sell interviews by Sheikh Abdul Majeed Zindani.

The commission drew the scientists to its conferences with first-class plane tickets for them and their wives, rooms at the best hotels, $1,000 honoraria, and banquets with Muslim leaders — such as a palace dinner in Islamabad with Pakistani President Mohammed Zia ul-Haq shortly before he was killed in a plane crash. Ahmed also gave at least one scientist a crystal clock.

Scientists complained of having fallen into a "trap" in interviews, or of "mutual manipulation" by the scientists and fundamentalists. Even the man who had been the Bucailleists most enthusiastic supporter, embryologist Keith L. Moore who had an edition of his textbook financed by Bucailleists and co-written with Sheikh Abdul Majeed Zindani, declined to be interviewed and told the newspaper, “it’s been 10 or 11 years since I was involved in the Quran.”

This page is featured in the core article, Islam and Propaganda which serves as a starting point for anyone wishing to learn more about this topic

See Also

• Dr. Keith Moore and the "Islamic Additions"

External Links

• Science and Islam in Conflict - Discover magazine, June 21, 2007
• The Qur'an and the Bible in the light of history and science - Dr. William Campbell, 1986 - a Christian response to The Bible, The Qur'an and Science
• Is Dr. Maurice Bucaille a Muslim? - Answering Islam