Muslim Perceptions of Biological Evolution: A Critical Review of Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Abstract

The topic of Muslims’ attitudes towards the theory of biological evolution has received increasing attention at the margins of the fields of public understanding of society, science communication or education and science in society. The methodology and methods employed in this work are primarily informed by research on attitudes towards evolution in the ‘West’, particularly in the US where the issue is highly politicized. Small, interview based qualitative and larger, survey based quantitative studies have explored degrees of acceptance or rejection of non-human and human evolution in a number of Muslim majority and Muslim minority contexts. The underlying rationale for these studies is often underpinned by a ‘deficit model’ in which Islam, or being Muslim, is usually posited as a particular obstacle to public understanding and acceptance of theory of evolution. This chapter summarizes these studies, analyzes the particularities of how deficit model approaches might be implicitly informing their findings, and reflects on the lack of reflexivity in much public understanding of science research on Muslim contexts.

The Final Domino: Yasir Qadhi, Youtube, and Evolution

“…Much of the literature about Islam/Muslims and evolution has often tended to portray Islam as a monolithic tradition and Muslims as a monolithic group (Carlisle, Hameed, and Elsdon‐Baker 2019, 146; Moran 2019). However, the Islamic tradition has been notably diverse since its early inception.…”

“…Not only does he accept that there is scientific consensus for human evolution, he himself also accepts the existence of prehuman humanoids due to the presence of indisputable evidence (Qadhi 2013a). His solution to this perceived conflict between science and scripture is a type of human exclusionism––a position not unique to Qadhi (Everhart and Hameed 2013; Guhin 2016; Moran 2018; Carlisle, Hameed, and Elsdon‐Baker 2019)––whereby God intervened at a specific point in time. However, what is in many ways unique to Qadhi is his attempts to provide an explanation as to the different conclusions reached by theologians and scientists.…”

“…However, for many commentators, discussions about Islam/Muslims and evolution are often based on the assumptions of nonspecialists in the study of Islam and Muslims, rather than empirical social scientific research (Moran 2019, 843). Much of the recent discourse has focused on so‐called “Islamic creationism” (Elsdon‐Baker 2015, 437; Hameed 2015), often relying on the assumption that Muslims are a monolithic group that overwhelmingly reject evolution primarily due to religious objections (Hameed 2015; Carlisle, Hameed, and Elsdon‐Baker 2019, 148). In response to the increased interest in the subject, a number of studies of Muslim perceptions of evolution have been conducted, ranging from a small number of cross‐national surveys (Hassan 2007; Pew Research Centre 2013), localized studies in specific Muslim majority contexts (BouJaoude, Asghar, et al.…”

Harun Yahya's Influence in Muslim Minority Contexts: Implications for Research in Britain, Europe, and Beyond

“…While these are just two examples, discussions about Harun Yahya can be found in a wide range of sources (Edis and Bix 2004;Edis 2006;Enserink 2007;Guessoum 2009;Riexinger 2009aRiexinger , 2009bRiexinger , 2010Hameed 2010Hameed , 2015Numbers 2010;Thomas 2012;Bigliardi 2012Bigliardi , 2014aBigliardi , 2014bEdis and BouJaoude 2014;Clément 2015;Aechtner 2016;Dupret and Gutron 2016;Carlisle et al 2019;Unsworth 2019), reinforcing the assumption of Harun Yahya's high relevance. 4 However, at present, there is little existing evidence to support the idea that Harun Yahya deserves such extensive coverage.…”

“…This, in turn, saw both academics and politicians focus a significant amount of attention on Islamic creationism, its origins, and possible methods to combat its influence (Hameed ; Carlisle et al. , 135). Explicitly or implicitly, it was suggested that European Muslims were unanimously rejecting evolution.…”