Avijit,
['The heart and cardiovascular system in the Qur'an and Hadeeth' is a]
Crackpot stuff. Shame on the journal that published it. They have sullied their
reputation.
What you've sent is just the tip of the iceberg.
For 30 years I've been challenging these dodos to come up with at least one
new useful invention or testable prediction based on the Quran.
Am still waiting.
---------
Pervez Hoodbhoy
Professor of Physics
Quaid-e-Azam University
Islamabad, Pakistan
And the author of
Islam and Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle for Rationality and
Education and the State Fifty Years of Pakistan
Dear Avijit,
Very interesting. Thanks for bringing these to my attention.
For now, I'm not going to write the journal; I'm a physicist, and they should be
hearing from physicians or others with biomedical background such as yourself.
But occasionally like this are annoying enough that they need to be publicized:
http://secularoutpost.infidels.org/2010/02/cardiologists-losing-it.html
Thanks again!
Dr. Taner Edis
Department of Physics
Truman State University
5 Woodland Lane Kirksville, MO 63501
http://www2.truman.edu/~edis/
And the Author of
An Illusion of Harmony: Science And Religion in Islam and
Science and Nonbelief
Dear Avijit:
It is nice to hear from you again. I'll try to post your letter on the
Panda's Thumb (as a a guest contribution) unless you tell me not to do so. PT
has a wide audience and it maybe useful for supporting your suggestion to send
letters to editors of the journal regarding that laughable paper about Quran's
alleged medical significance.
Best wishes,
yours
Prof. Mark Perakh
Professor emeritus of Mathematics and statistical mechanics at California State
University, Fullerton in Fullerton, California.
And the author of
Unintelligent Design
This is surprising. The Islamic view of medicine is however better than the
early basic Christian knowledge, which in the middle ages was utterly abysmal.
The Quran is largely a book of theological poetry, and these ideas about
physiology are, should we say poetic. This article might be better suited for a
journal concerned with the history of medicine. Some of this article’s claims
are still preposterous.
Lawrence B. Crowell
The author of
Can Star Systems Be Explored?: The Physics of Probes
I've noticed a similar phenomenon with some New Age believers, but their
focus is more on technology. Some argue that the lost island of Atlantis had
technology more advanced than ours, and some say similar things about ancient
Egypt. Often it's extra-terrestrials who are given credit for giving these
ancient civilizations their advanced technologies. There's a kind of Golden Age
mythology that seems to run through these notions.
Charles A. Sullivan
writer, philosopher and philosophy instructor
Dear Editor;
I just read an essay The heart and cardiovascular system in the Qur'an and
Hadeeth written by Marios Loukas, Yousuf Saad, R. Shane Tubbs and Mohamadali M.
Shojawhich.
Your decision to publish such a “voodoo Science” is bound to affect your
reputation. My conjecture is very soon, the Christians, the Jews, the Hindus and
the Voodoo practitioners in Africa and the charm and amulet dealers in all parts
of the world may submit their claims of modern medical science in their trades.
The author of the above essay has cited a few verses from the Qur’an and
ahadith to demonstrate scientific materials related to human heart in those
verses. I will say this simply is not true. Anyone who reads these verses will
have no doubt that the verses almost invariably refer to the stubbornness of the
infidels who do not to open their hearts to Islam or to demonstrate the peace
and tranquillity that descends when a person embraces Islam. I urge you to read
the referred verses to judge for yourself the veracity of my statement.
Now, here are a few examples from the Qur’an:
Allah sealed the hearts of the non‑believers, and put veils on their eyes;
there is a great penalty for the non‑believers. (Qur'an 2:7).
One of the most eminent scholars of the Qur'an, ibn Kathir writes that the
seal is placed on the heart and the hearing; Allah has sealed their hearts
because of their unbelief. Another eminent scholar of the Qur'an, ibn Abbas
says: This refers in particular to the Jews Ka'b Ibn al‑Ashraf, Huyayy Ibn
Akhtab and Judayy Ibn Akhtab.
The hypocrites have disease in their hearts, Allah has increased the disease,
and there is a grievous punishment for them. (Qur'an 2:10). Ibn Kathir writes
disease means doubt. Ibn Abbas says: the reference is to the hypocrites:
Abdullah ibn Ubayy, Jadd Ibn Qays and Mu'attib Ibn Qushay.
The Muslims should muster all their power and might, including steeds of war
(tanks, planes, missiles…etc.) to strike terror in the hearts of the unbelievers
(Qur'an 8:6). Ibn Abbas says this means killing them.
Where is the modern medical condition of the heart in these verses? Mind you,
I just cited only three verses from the Qur’an to demonstrate the utter
untruthfulness of the author of the essay. The Qur'an is littered with hundreds
of such hateful verses. How can we relate these hateful verses to modern medical
science?
Many such similar passages are found in the Ahadith as well. For example, in
a hadith we note that Muhammad had used “camel’s urine” as a medicine. Do you
think we should now resort to drinking camels’ urine just because Islamic texts
recommend it? Will you allow an essay extolling the virtues of drinking camels’
urine in your journal?
Your decision to publish such a misleading and completely unscientific essay
is utterly imprudent and highly regrettable. It will simply embolden religious
bigotry and encourage the Islamist terrorists.
Abul Kasem
Lecturer in Civil Engineering
Sydney, Australia
Email:
[email protected]
Dear Sir,
I am a Ph.D. in biological science and worked many years in the U.S. with
research animals and I am quite familiar with the anatomy, physiology and
pathology of humans and most research animals. I have recently came across an
amazingly controversial paper: 'The heart and cardiovascular system in the
Qur'an and Hadeeth' (Marios Loukas, Yousuf Saad, R. Shane Tubbs and Mohamadali
M. Shojawhich) and surprisingly this fraudulently crafted article claimed to be
peer reviewed and accepted for publication by the Editorial Board of your well
reputed journal.
I am surprised as well as appalled to see how a reputed journal like yours is
going to publishing or even accepting a deceitfully crafted article which has
been written based on 100% false claims of science in Quran or Hadiths. This
article is an absolutely illusionary dream by some cunning Islamists only to
fool westerners. I can bet million dollars that nothing can be proven true about
their claims by an impartial scrutiny of Quran and hadiths, if you desire to
conduct any such independent investigation.
I have thoroughly read Islamic religious book of Quran and also Islamic
tradition called Hadiths for the last 20 years. I have found this Quran and
Hadiths are really silly books loaded with plenty of mumbo-jumbos of utterly
superstitious crap. I have found Quran and hadiths are full of contradictions
and errors in scientific, historical, ethical, moral, and political matters.
These books are also full with utter hateful scriptural verses against all non-muslims.
I have written many full size articles with Quran and hadiths depicting
monumental errors and contradictions in the Quran. You can read one such article
here:
https://gold.mukto-mona.com/wordpress/?p=54
I am quite positive that the peer-reviewers of your journal either never read
and checked the authenticity of any Quranic verse that authors claimed, or they
have simply believed by the utter deceptively and fraudulently distortions of
Quranic verses or hadith by their (authors) wishful manipulations.
These wishful Islamists (authors) have deceived you by selective (pick &
choose) verses, taking part of the verse, sometimes by changing the actual
words, adding non-existing words etc, they intentionally twist or manipulate the
commonly accepted meanings of verses—to prove science in Quran. Who has ever
heard about scientific theory in any religious book? Is any religion really
compatible with the modern science? I thought, religion and science are like oil
and water which never mix together! Please read this article here: http://www.islam-watch.org/SyedKamranMirza/Nostalgia-of-Islamic-Golden-Age.htm
only to learn that, ancient luminaries of Islamic kingdom did not get their
scientific ideas from Koran or Hadiths at all; instead they all got it from the
ancient Indian, Greek and Chinese sources.
Their claims about Quranic embryology is a pure joke and full of
superstitious craps. Please read this article about Quranic embryology here:
http://www.islam-watch.org/SyedKamranMirza/Quran-Human-Embryology.htm
I urge you to investigate the real source the so called Holy Quran and
hadiths for accuracies of their claims. I wonder why your “cutting age” journal
could accept such fraudulently written article without any proper investigation
of the source. While I understand that accepting or publishing any article in
your reputed journal is purely your prerogative but I fervently request you to
do your peer-review investigation one more time. Please ask them to submit all
the Quranic verses and hadiths ( in original) and make an independent
investigations by non-muslim scientists (not by Mullahs) and find the truth
about this article.
Quran is replete with hateful harsh and unethical cruel verses against non-muslims.
You can read some samples here:
http://www.islam-watch.org/SyedKamranMirza/TerrorManual.htm
This utterly fraudulent article if you publish will surely give a giant leap
of propaganda tool in the hands of cunning Islamists. Also please consider
that—by publishing such fraudulent article in your reputed journal will only
embolden the religious zeal of Islamic terrorists further to destroy our
civilization. And of course, your journal will surely lose its prestige in the
international scientific community. Thanks for your understanding.
Sincerely yours,
Syed Kamran Mirza, Ph.D.
[email protected]
(Full letter of Syed Kamran Mirza was sent to journal, only partial has
been pasted above)
Publishing such a
tale-tell has definitely raised the question of the quality (reliability
& validity) of this journal. Trying to save face of the diminishing
respect of Islam and Muslims to the present-day world of reasons has
simply added more mockery to it. The article contradicts how the science
is done. The very statement 'revelation' is a misrepresentation of the
fact that Islam is one of the three religions that came into being from
the same feudal family to compete each other. Also the practices and so
called science of the prophet Muhammad described in this article can be
transparently considered as plagiarism for it has been described in many
early texts for example, 'Manisanghita' about 5 thousand years ago
practiced by Aryan monks before the doctrine of Islam came to Middle
East. Nevertheless, the authors desecrated the holy books by aligning
them with science. Science is the claim from evidence and so a rational
domain of human being. I would respect Al-Brunni as the then front line
member of scientists from Middle East. Advising with no observations and
facts garnered is not a science itself rather than authoritarian views.
Science never spews hatred against the nature but just read the comments
of a real devout Muslim professor from Australia who has simply cited a
few verses to support the terrorism against non-believers. How the
authors claim the Quoran and Hadith as per with science? Science is not
an absolute but dynamic and skeptical that changes with new findings. Do
'Quoran' and 'Hadith' mandate this nature of science? Dreaded it might
be if that is so as we have seen in many incidents that almost knocked
the very world peace. take for man example, Taslima Nasreen -- a female
medical doctor and rational scientist herself is facing the Islamic
sword on her neck because she asked for change of 'Quoran' & Islamic
practices in view of the present day needs. How then these authors
mischievously try to describe the statements from an authoritarian
scriptures as science. To me they themselves are complete ignorant of
what it is that is called science.
My advice with these
authors would be to avoid this pseudo-science and rather stand strongly
against the heinous terrorists to wash the smeared hands of Islam with
dignity.
Dr. Ankut
Professor of Science & Education, USA.
TO:
Dr. A.J.S. Coats
Editor-in-Chief
The International Journal of Cardiology
University of Sydney
NSW 2006, Australia
COPY TO:
Dr. Graham Brumfield
Elsevier
Radarweg 29
1043 NX Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Dear Dr. Coats,
The articles “Islamic legacy of cardiology: Inspirations from the holy
sources” (doi:10.1016/j.ijcard.2009.09.470)
and “The heart and cardiovascular system in the Qur'an and Hadeeth” (doi:10.1016/j.ijcard.2009.05.011)
appearing online in the International Journal of Cardiology , published
by Elsevier, caught my attention. I request that you retract these two
papers from both online and print versions of your prestigious journal.
I am a biomedical scientist with a PhD
working in a prestigious research institute, and having had published
over 80 scientific papers, mostly in peer reviewed, international
scientific journals. These journals include such reputable ones as the
Journal of Biological Chemistry, PLoS Pathogens, Biochemistry, and the
Journal of Molecular Biology. My most recent paper appeared in the
Elsevier journal, Analytical Biochemistry.
As the name International Journal of
Cardiology suggests, I found all the articles, as can be found in the
current ‘free sample copy’, deal with scientific research related to the
heart, except the two articles cited above. These two articles address
neither science nor scientific investigation, but quotes religious
scriptures and practices to glorify the religion. Being born to the
faith, I am pretty well educated in both Quran and Hadeeth, and find no
science in them except self-contradictions, but will refrain to
elaborate since that is not my field of research. The two articles may
be more suited for one of many other journals including Religion and
History of European Ideas both published by Elsevier. I found no
theology experts in the list of your editorial staff nor did I find a
scope of religious discussion in this prestigious journal. Unless you
expanded the stated scope, “both basic research and clinical papers”, of
the journal to include non-scientific literature, I am surprised that
these two papers passed the peer review process.
As in the middle and dark ages, religion has always been an impediment
to scientific progress. Even in today’s world of religious ‘tolerance’,
clergies are found to deliver hateful sermons against those engaged in
scientific research, and being publicized in the electronic media. The
problem is so acute, that I do not wish to expose my identity in writing
this comment because of fear of my life! I believe publishing these two
articles in your journal will do a great disservice to the scientific
community and science. Must the above religious articles appear in your
journal, I will reconsider submitting any of my scientific papers in any
of the Elsevier journals. I am sure many of my colleagues in my renowned
biomedical research institute of 700-plus strength and my peers
elsewhere, will follow me.
I therefore respectfully request that you
reconsider publishing these papers in your journal. I also request that
you do not make my email address public.
Very respectfully,
Ahmed
A scientist opposed to ‘religious science’
Dear Editor,
I was quite disappointed
to know that the manuscript entitled “The heart and cardiovascular system in
the Qur'an and Hadeeth” by Marios Loukas et al was e-published in the
International Journal of Cardiology. This pseudoscience paper describes the
cardiovascular system in the Qur'an and Hadeeth. One can however find this
sort of trivial description of human body or the cardiovascular system
available in almost all ancient cultures and civilizations (Hindu, Muslim,
Chinese, Mayan, African etc). I, myself being an editor of several journals
in clinical and health sciences, failed to understand as to how this sort of
pseudoscience could survive the scientific peer review process in your
esteemed journal. I therefore wonder whether we will see more of such papers
in your journal.
I question your journal’s
ethical standing on the pseudoscience like this one as your journal is
committed to publish papers on basic and clinical research in cardiology and
serve the interest of both practicing clinicians and research workers. I was
therefore shocked to see the pseudoscience paper published in your journal.
In my opinion, by publishing this sort of paper you have compromised the
reputation of your journal very badly. Most importantly you have given the
opportunity to the religious fanatics to exploit this to strengthen their
propaganda machinery.
I think it is very
important for all of us that you clarify your position as to why you think
this paper was worthy of publication in your journal.
With Regards
Professor Asim K. Duttaroy
Faculty of Medicine
University of Oslo
POB 1046 Blindern
N-0316 Oslo
Norway
Dear Editor,
International Journal of Cardiology,
I am extremely disappointed that a trash
entitled, “The heart and cardiovascular system in the Qur’an and Hadeeth”
(doi:10.1016/j.ijcard.2009.05.011). was published in your journal. It only
contributed to degradation of your journal, it did not enrich existing
knowledge on the subject matter. Only idiotic people blinded by faith can
produce such trash full of utter nonsense.
I am not sure if this article has
undergone any peer review. The lightning speed at which this article was
accepted after submission suggests that it did not. I wish this particular
‘paper’ was reviewed by embryologists and cardiologists. I am sure no
embryologist would have accepted the following quote from Koran as an
accurate description of how an embryo is formed,
“We [God] created man from a
quintessence of clay. We then placed himas a nutfah (drop) in a place of
settlement, firmly fixed, then We made the drop into an ‘alaqah (leech-like
structure), and then We changed the ’alaqah into a mudhah (chewed-like
substance, somite stage), then We clothed the bones with lahm (muscles,
flesh), then We caused himto growand comeinto being and attain the
definitive (human) form. So, blessed be God, the best to create” [40].
And, no cardiologist should accept that
heart is the source of spirit, emotion and intelligence.
Please withdraw this article immediately.
Irtishad Ahmad
Professor and Chairperson
Construction Management
Florida International University
Former Editor, Journal of Management in Engineering, ASCE.
Editor-in Chief
International Journal of Cardiology,
Hi
We know that your journal is being read hundreds of thousands of medical
students, engineering students, heart specialists all over the world. You
had placed yourself in a very high peak of popularity among the readers but
after going through your published article Ref. 2, I am surprised that how
an internationally renowned journal like yours can publish unscientific
article which is without any hard core scientific analysis. It seems that, ”
The heart and cardiovascular system in the Qur’an and Hadeeth “, was written
by some Madrasa teachers. It describes poorly about heart, blood system,
etc. but preaches Koran, Hadeeth and Mohammad(PBUH). It seems to be a more
religious article rather than a medical article.
So you have started publishing religious article in your medical journal
where we expect articles based on experiment, research and with innovative
thoughts.
The heart is mentioned numerous times in both the Qur’an and
Hadeeth and is used in many different contexts, such as “in the
heart” or “from the heart.” The repetitive use of the concept of the
heart illustrates its centrality to the core of every individual. Firstly,
the importance of the heart is demonstrated in the fact that we find
different states of the heart in the three groups of people that the
Qur’an describes; the mu’minun (Believers) have hearts that are
alive, the kafirun (the rejecters of faith) have hearts that are dead, and
the munafiqun (the hypocrites) have hearts that are diseased. The two
general types of heart that are described are the extensively described
spiritual heart and the physical heart
Did you read the above before publishing ?
Best Regards.
S.Tikadar
Technip
Department of Mechanical Engineering (Rotating Equipment)
Jl.Prof.Dr.Satrio Block E4 No.6
Mega Kulingan, Jakarta 12950
TO:
Editor-in-Chief
The International Journal of Cardiology
Dear Sir, Greetings
I hold a PhD degree in
Psychometrics/Statistics and work at a major university in the US.
The “subject” heading of my email is a
title for an article that your journal is publishing. I had just started
writing a submission to respond to this fallacious article that your journal
published. This article will give credibility to voodo science and lies a la
Qur’anic style. I stopped writing my article because other researchers did
enough on the aforementioned article to show how erroneous that article is (Syed
Kamran Mirza and M. A. Khan did enough, not to mention Abul Kasem). I would
like to draw your attention that those authors are researchers on Islam for
many many years.
I am writing to you for two reasons:
1. For the sake of scientific and academic
integrity, if your Journal is going to keep that fallacious article in the
Journal, then it is a moral imperative that you publish the responses to
this article that you received from Abul Kasem, Dr. Syed kamran Mirza, and
M. A. Khan.
2. I have published many articles. Some in
refereed Journals. Two of them are in top tier Journals. The usual process
is that you do the research and write the article and submit it. The article
is then sent by the journal to three or more reviewers. In about 3 to 6
months, the Journal hears from the reviewers and their comments. The
comments and requests of changes are sent to the researcher(s) to fix
his/her article. This process takes another 3 to 6 months (and may be
repeated for a second round if needed). The article is sent to the reviewers
again to make sure that the authors have satisfied their requirements.
Finally, the article is accepted for publication (in 6 to 12 months as a
minimum)
Now, my question is this: How in the world
you receive an article and get it accepted in five days? Can you see what is
wrong here.
In any case, you are free to do with your
journal as you please. The moral obligation on your Journal is either to
withdraw that “voodo” article from your accepted articles. Or publish it
along with the responses from Abul Kasem, Mirza, and Khan. In this manner,
the article is discredited right away. My own view is that if you want to
keep your journal at a scientifically reputed level, take out that
fallacious article and never look back.
Respectfully yours
Ibn Kammuna
The Editor
International Journal of Cardiology
ELSEVIER
Subject: Opinion on “The
heart and cardiovascular system in the Qur’an and Hadith”
Dear Sir,
Though late, I am
horrified to see the article entitled “The heart and cardiovascular system
in the Qur’an and Hadith” by a group of authors- Marios Loukas et al on line
published in your journal recently.
I am a medical physicist
by profession now engaged in teaching and research in the department of
medical physics and biomedical engineering in a private university in Dhaka,
Bangladesh. My first reaction is this: it is neither a research article nor
a good review article on the subject. The authors have willfully tried to
mislead the readers using a catchy title with the intention of preaching the
greatness of the holy book even as a book of biological science dealing with
human system to impress upon the western readers having little or no
knowledge of Islam in general and on Qur’an in particular.
I have studied important
holy books of all major religions including the Qur’an since my boyhood when
I was exposed to Qur’anic study at class eight in our Arabic class and
continued for 2-years. I still read, whenever I need, the holy Qur’an and
other religious scriptures as I find them quite interesting from the
sociological point of view.
Let me clearly state, Mr.
Editor, that I have no prejudice against Islam or for that matter against
any other religion(s) including animism. Any individual has the basic right
to hold and practice any religion of his likings, but that does not mean
those people have the right to intermingle their religion with science as we
understand today.
What is Qur’an?
The Qur’an, as I
understand is devoutly a religious book prescribing as if it is a complete
code of life for its followers. The author of the holy book never meant or
attempted to show that it were a book on science or of other specialized
discipline like history, economics, geography, anthropology etc. The Qur’an
was meant, and still is meant for common mass with average intelligence to
follow it so that they can achieve the jannat after the worldly life. That
is why it covers, like many other religious books, many aspects of day to
day life including the creation of the universe and the earth, rudimentary
information on health and hygiene, birth of children, marriage, and
inheritance etc. on the basis of the knowledge available to the Qur’anic
authors at that time. The Qur’an is full of ‘Dos and not Dos’ for its
followers and boring repetition of things again again including the stories
of Musa, Jesus, Ibrahim, Daud and Solomon and Pharaohs of Egypt etc. It
treats those don’t have faith in Qur’an as kafirs (non believers) and
prescribed for them severe punishment afterworld. The Qur’an shows very poor
knowledge of world history and geography- its limit is within Semitic Asia.
The greatness of Egyptian, Chinese, Greek and Indian civilization is poorly
reflected, although its followers in the later period (9th-11th century AD),
especially the intelligentsia of the Arab world profusely used the store
house of knowledge of these countries to create new world of knowledge in
the Islamic world.
Although I would not call
the article as ‘voodoo science’, nor even a ‘pseudo science’, but surely not
call it a research scientific paper by modern standard set out by scientific
journal. In a scientific journal, neither place of miracle nor words of God
or goddesses find place as authoritative source or reference. This reminds
me a story about .... ( Read the complete letter of Prof Ajoy Roy
from here)
Professor Ajoy Roy
Chairman,
Department of Medical Physics & Biomedical Engineering
Gono University, Savar, Dhaka
