In Pakistan, a professor of zoology, Sher Ali, who had dared to teach, among other subjects inimical to devout Muslims, evolution and the equality of the sexes, was threatened by Muslim clerics with a condign punishment that was unstated, but almost certainly death. He was made to read aloud, and have recorded on videotape, his renunciation of everything about modern science that he had learned, believed in, and taught to others. It was a scene worthy of the Soviet purge trials of the 1930s. More on Sher Ali and his public humiliation, as he was forced to renounce his beliefs on camera, can be found here: “Following Bomb Attack, Islamic Clerics In Pakistan Force Biology Professor Sher Ali To Read Prepared Statement Renouncing Evolution: ‘A Woman’s Intellect Is Comparatively Less Than That Of A Man From The Perspective Of Allah’s Shari’a,'” MEMRI, January 22, 2024:
In October 2023, a video emerged on social media showing a group of Islamic religious scholars in the Bannu district of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. In the film, the clerics are forcing Sher Ali, a teacher of zoology, to renounce, on camera, a number of beliefs and scientific ideas such as Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution
Sher Ali is an assistant professor of biology at the Government Postgraduate Decree College in the Bannu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He holds a Master of Science degree in Zoology from the University of Peshawar, and a Master of Philosophy degree in human genetics from the Quaid-e-Azam University of Islamabad.
In some images available on social media, Sher Ali can be seen holding a copy of the book Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, by internationally acclaimed Israeli author Yuval Noah Harari. Sher Ali is an intellectual who publicly discusses widely respected scientific ideas n Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where Islamist groups are powerful.
No doubt Sher Ali’s holding up a copy of Homo Deus was for two reasons the last straw for the outraged clerics. First, the book is a compendium of modern scientific ideas that contradict the teachings of Islam. Second, it was written by an Israeli, which is to say, an enemy of Islam.
Sher Ali reads the required renunciation of widely accepted scientific theories.
In May 2022, Sher Ali’s car was attacked with a magnetic bomb, leaving him in a wheelchair for months and raising the question among his students and followers whether he would continue to speak at seminars and teach openly. However, in an interview with one of his students from his hospital bed, Sher Ali revealed his optimism that he would continue to teach.
Sher Ali has in the past been the object of homicidal hate, for his teachings have long been regarded by Muslim extremists as offensive to Islam. He survived a magnetic bomb attack in May 2022, intended to kill him, but that attack did not modify his classroom teachings. Hence the delegation of clerics who visited him in October 2023 and made him an offer he could not refuse: either to publicly recant all of his teachings about science that contradict Islam, or else face the condign punishment of death.
This [Sher Ali’s holding up a copy of Homo Deus by Israeli author Yonah Hariri} seems to have prompted a group of radical clerics associated with the Deobandi school of Sunni Islam to gather together to force him to renounce certain scientific ideas. The Deobandi school is named after the Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband, the second largest Islamic seminary in the world, after Jamia Al-Azhar of Cairo. The Dar-ul-Uloom seminary is near New Delhi, India. A translation of Sher Ali’s renunciation, as written by the clerics, is given below.
Following is the text Sher Ali was forced to read, as translated from the Urdu:
“The issue that arose was resolved through mutual understanding. We have written some points in this declaration. Since most of them are for me, I will read them on social media.
“I, Sher Ali, son of Sharif Khan Sarkakhel, with my senses, willingness, and safety, bearing Allah the Almighty as witness, declare and confirm that Allah is the one and only without any partner, and the Prophet [Muhammad], peace be upon him, is the true messenger of Allah and the last prophet of the prophets, and after whom, there will be no new prophet in any form.
“I accept all the beliefs brought from Allah by the noble Prophet [Muhammad] according to the explanations of scholars from the Ahl-e-Sunnah Wal Jamaat and the Deobandi [school of Sunni Islamic thought], without any doubt or hesitation.
“In times of necessity, I consider the woman observing proper hijab from head to toe when leaving the house to be according to shari’a. As a woman’s intellect is comparatively less than that of a man from the perspective of Shari’at-e-Ilahi [Allah’s shari’a], I understand this to be correct…
“I consider forced or consensual sex [outside of marriage] to be openly haram [forbidden]. I consider those who accept it as halal [permissible] to be outside the fold of Islam. I consider any form of sexual freedom as openly haram. The interaction of women with men [to whom they are not related] is not permissible. I consider this to be correct.
“I consider all intellectual and scientific ideas and theories that go against Allah’s shari’a to be falsehoods, such as Darwin’s theory [of evolution]. I declare that I repent all the statements I have made in seminars, lectures, social media posts, comments, and other gatherings that contradict the above-mentioned matter…
“In the future, if I make any kind of speech or written statement that is contrary to the above-mentioned matters and the Islamic opinion, I will be found guilty according to the shari’a, for example, insulting the symbols of Allah, insulting the prophet, denying the hadith [traditions of Muhammad], insulting the Companions [Sahaba of Prophet Muhammad], and so on.”
The Deobandi clerics, threatening death, forced Sherif Ali’s public and humiliating recantation of all he had been teaching. He was forced to describe truth — such as Darwinian evolution — as falsehood, and falsehood — the inferiority of women — as truth. What will become of Sherif Ali? Will he continue to teach, now that he will be forced to teach what he knows to be lies? Or will he leave teaching altogether, rather than be forced to yield to the threats of fanatical Muslims?
I suspect that after he read out the script prepared for him by the troglodytic Deobandi clerics, and returned to his home, Sherif Ali whispered under his breath what Galileo said under his breath at his own trial in 1633 for spreading the heretical notion of heliocentrism — “Eppur si muove,” or, “And yet it moves.”
Hoi Polloi says
I call on all Muslims to reject modern medicine, transportation, communications, structures (especially those with cooling and heating), polymer wearables, cooking devices, and weapons systems, all of which are developed and produced according to scientific principles. Some are even conceived and constructed by females, and most exclusively by infidels and therefore should be forbidden to Muslims who cannot abide science.
Live by your principles.
somehistory says
mozlums will do anything to spread the evils by which they live. They should try your suggestions. Perhaps there are many evil-minded infdels who would join up with them…go off the grid completely….and leave the rest of us in peace.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Precisely! 👌
Mike says
There are many Christian and Jewish scientists who believe in Darwinian Evolution, and yet believe in a God, because they regard the Creation story in the Book of Genesis as allegorical.
Hoi Polloi says
Evolution as a scientific theory and Christianity are not mutually exclusive. There is, however, an atheistic approach that is exclusive of Christianity. There are many very good scientists who address this issue.
Goofy says
This should be sufficient grounds for disqualifying Muslims currently serving as MDs as they are forced by their brothers and sisters in Islam to believe in their incompetent Allah who has no clue, which includes the intricacies of human reproduction!.
The only thing which matters to the Muslims is the good name of Muhammad, which must be defended at all costs.
Muhammad was born +/- 3 years after his father’s death. Allah forbid that anyone would get the idea that someone else fathered him!
Instead it is made proof of the fact that Muhammad was the best man who ever lived, which of course takes a significantly longer pregnancy!
All good Muslim nations have incorporated this fact into their legislation to the effect that many of them do not even have a maximum duration of a woman’s pregnancy!
This is as close as you will ever get to a miracle in Islam! The miracle is not the longer pregnancy but the fact that you can make anyone believe in it!
Tony Rice says
Just wait till the aliens get here when all myths will get blown skyhigh
Waldorf says
Perhaps this guy could possibly qualify as a true asylum seeker.