DRC Interview with T.O.Shanavas: Islam and Science
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DRC presents today an interview with Dr. T.O.Shanavas, an Indian-American pediatrician, member of the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo and vice-president of the Islamic Research Foundation.
For the last ten years, Dr. Shanavas has written many articles on Islam and controversial issues as for example the real age of Aisha, one of the wives of the Prophet Muhammad, and on Islam and Science. Current Muslim thought has made many beliefs, histories and opinions of Islamic thought into sacred dogma's and thus exclude the possibility of differing with these concepts. In the West, the idea of Aisha being 9 years old when marrying the Prophet, is considered as unacceptable and has created logically a bad image of the Prophet. Dr. Shanavas has researched the historical reports that discuss the age of Aisha and he shows that there is no conclusive historical record about her age. She could have been 9, 16, 17 or even 27. But at a point of Muslim history, the belief that Aisha was 9, was turned into sacred history and so the possibility of rejecting these historical reports became blasphemy. To defend against the critique of the West of Aisha being 9, the most heard apology is that the culture of the 7th century was different and women became mature at a much younger age. But any sane human can see the nonsense of this apology. And now Dr. Shanavas has given Muslims a real answer to this critique by showing that Aisha was probably much older when she married the Prophet, but this answer also creates a shift in current Muslim thought that the historical reports are not revelation, they are not sacred, they are human work and thus contain contradictions and falsehood. Sadly many in the Muslim world are not ready yet to look at their history in such a rational matter.
Read the complete interview
http//www.deenresearchcenter.com/Blogs/tabid/73/EntryId/126/Interview-with-T-O-Shanavas-Islam-and-Science.aspx