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October 17, 2005
Akyol Joins The Board of Intelligent Design Network
On October 15, 2005, Intelligent Design Network announced that it elected Mustafa Akyol to its Board of Directors. Akyol will be the first and only Muslim member of the board.
Intelligent Design Network is a nonprofit national organization that seeks institutional objectivity in origins science. As its charter explains, "objectivity is necessary because many institutions systematically suppress any objective consideration of that disagreement."
Posted by Web Master at 5:12 PM | Comments (1)
October 6, 2005
Radio Discussion on Intelligent Design
IPI Global Journalist, the radio of the International Press Institute, hosted a discussion on Intelligent Design on Sept. 29, 2005. Along with four other journalists from Philadelphia Inquirer, Inside the Vatican, JTA News and Tricycle Magazine, Mustafa Akyol joined the program, and argued for the scientific integrity of Intelligent Design theory and explained the Muslim point of view on the ongoing debate about biological origins.
The program is available to listen online here.
Posted by Web Master at 2:36 PM | Comments (0)
October 3, 2005
Intelligence in the Boston Globe About Intelligent Design
Intelligent Design and its proponents face a great deal of insult, mockery and ad hominem attacks nowadays. But there are saner voices out there. One good example is a recent op-ed piece in The Boston Globe by Jeff Jacoby.
Mr. Jacoby begins by pointing that the recent hype about "Flying Spaghetti Monsterism" (FSM) — a cheap demagoguery to discredit ID — is completely irrelevant.
I agree. ID argues that there is a Designer and does not address the nature of that Designer, because that is scientifically undetectable. While many ID supporters, including myself, keep the personal opinion that the Designer is God — of the Bible and the Koran — such personal opinions are not a part of ID theory. FSM, on the other hand, is a fantasy about the Designer and people have the right to believe in it — if they find it really plausible. Yet theirs would be a subjective faith that has no place in the science class.
Another good point in Mr. Jacoby's article is his comment on the Scopes-trial-is-back rhetoric. Yes, it is back — but in reverse:
How things have changed. When John Scopes went on trial in Tennessee in 1925, religious fundamentalists fought to keep evolution out of the classroom because it was at odds with a literal reading of the Biblical creation story. Today, Darwinian fundamentalists fight to keep the evidence of intelligent design in the diversity of life on earth out of the classroom, because that would be at odds with a strictly materialist view of the world. Eighty years ago, the thought controllers wanted no Darwin; today's thought controllers want only Darwin. In both cases, the dominant attitude is authoritarian and closed-minded — the opposite of the liberal spirit of inquiry on which good science depends.
Mr. Jacoby's conclusion is correct, too: "[ID] isn't primitivism or Bible-thumping or flying spaghetti. It's science."
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:39 PM | Comments (1)
October 2, 2005
Turkey and the Headscarf
[Originally published in The Washington Times]
There are few countries in the world in which policemen ensure that women dress appropriately. Saudi Arabia is one example. Its notorious "religion police," called mutawwa, force women to cover their heads and bodies. In Turkey, the story is reversed: The Turkish police require the removal of headdresses.
To be fair, Turkey's dress code is much less severe than Saudi Arabia's. In Turkey, the ban is enforced only in defined parts of the public square: government buildings, courtrooms, university campuses and all schools.
Continue reading "Turkey and the Headscarf"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 1:08 PM | Comments (18)
