Online Salafi reflections on the theory of evolution by natural selection Mémoire Jean-François Létourneau Maîtrise en science politique - avec mémoire Maître ès arts (M.A.) Québec, Canada © Jean-François Létourneau, 2020 Online Salafi reflections on the theory of evolution by natural selection Mémoire Jean-François Létourneau Sous la direction de : Francesco Cavatorta Résumé Ce mémoire explore la manière dont la communauté Salafiste en ligne perçoit la théorie de l’évolution par la sélection naturelle. Les sources consultées sont deux essais ainsi que de multiples courts textes et fatwas. ii Abstract This thesis explore how online Salafis perceive the theory of evolution by natural selection. The sources used include two essays as well as multiples short texts and fatwas. iii Table of contents (Résumé) ............................................................................................................................................................. ii Abstract ............................................................................................................................................................... iii Table of contents ................................................................................................................................................ iv List of figures ....................................................................................................................................................... v epigraph…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….vi (Remerciements) ............................................................................................................................................... vii Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 - Saleh As-Saleh .............................................................................................................................. 20 Chapter 2 - Abu Iyaad and his response to Usama Hasan ............................................................................... 42 Chapter 3 - fatwas and short texts……………………………………………………………………………………...77 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................ 83 Bibliography ...................................................................................................................................................... 86 Appendix A ....................................................................................................................................................... 89 iv List of figures Fig 1. Letter (p. 72) v Pour mes parents, François et Christiane vi “How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy.” William Churchill, The River War “The Western world realizes that Western civilization is unable to present any healthy values for the guidance of mankind. It knows that it does not possess anything which will satisfy its own conscience and justify its existence.” Sayyid Qutb, Milestones vii Remerciements Je remercie ma femme, Julie Grenier, pour son soutient durant la rédaction de mon mémoire. De plus, sans l’aide et la patience de mon directeur, Francesco Cavatorta, il m’aurait été presque impossible de produire ce document. viii Introduction Scientific discoveries are often benign in their effects on religion. Indeed, in some cases, models of scientific inquiry have been readily adopted or approved by religions. A notable example is that of Aristotelian thought, which Jewish, Islamic and Christian traditions adopted as an intellectual scaffold to understand and systemize the world. However, some scientific discoveries have conflicted with religions. A widely known example is the heliocentric model of the planetary system Copernicus developed in the 16th century. Although mostly ignored by protestant and catholic authorities during his lifetime, Copernicus’ theory came to the attention of the Church when Galileo re-formulated it in his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems published in 1632. The heliocentric model, in which the sun was in the center of the planetary system, was a break from the hitherto dominant geocentric model, in which the Earth was situated in the center. Eventually, the heliocentric model of the planetary system became mainstream science and today, only a small number of eccentric “flat Earth” organizations contest it.1 A far more controversial scientific discovery was that of Charles Darwin’s theory of biological evolution by natural selection, first published in his On the Origin of Species in 1859. In his theory, Darwin posited that species evolve under environmental pressures, and that those differences in hereditary traits that lead to an increased probability of procreation in a given environment provide a comparative edge to those individual beings bearing them. This theory also implies that all species, including Homo sapiens, have one common ancestor. For many individuals and institutions, especially religious ones, this theory was thought to be not only wrong, but dangerous, for if God (or some other conscious being) were not the creator of all things living, no values or sense to life, it was said, could be given any credence, and individuals could act without the restraints of the moral principles bequeathed 1 It must be mentioned that the prominent Saudi Salafi scholar Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz did defend the geocentric model from 1966 until 1985, when Saudi prince Sultan bin Salman convinced him that the heliocentric model was correct. 1 to mankind by God. Opposition to Darwin’s theory2 would remain strong in the 20th century, as the famous State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes trial (better known as the Scopes Monkey Trial) and the attempt to force the teaching of creationism and, later, intelligent design in the United States have demonstrated.3 Less known to the scholarly community is the reception of the theory of evolution in Muslim societies. Although there have been a few studies on the reception of evolution by Muslims –both Sunni and Shia- in various regions4, little attention has been paid to the reception of evolution by Islamist groups. For this reason, there remains a significant vacuum in the study of the reception of the theory of evolution in Muslim societies. It is important to understand the underlying ideology, the basic beliefs, of a group to comprehend its motives, objectives, and potential policy preferences, including those concerning education. During the last two decades, scholars of Islamist movements have enriched the political science literature with a bountiful harvest of new data and interpretations concerning matters such as their participation in politics, terrorist networks, education curricula and social movements.5 The issue of their reception of the theory of evolution, however, has yet to be explored. This thesis is an attempt to understand the reception of the theory of evolution by a sub-group of Islamists, the religious creed, social movement, and in some cases, political ideology, of Salafis. That the idea of evolution by natural selection is known in at least some Salafi circles is made quite clear in a stunning passage in the infamous Islamic State magazine Dabiq, in an article entitled “Why we hate you”: We hate you and wage war against you because you disbelieve in the existence of your Lord and Creator. You witness the extraordinarily complex makeup of created beings, and the astonishing and inexplicably precise physical laws that govern the entire universe, but insist that they all came about through randomness and that one should be faulted, mocked, and ostracized for recognizing that the astonishing signs we witness day after day are the creation of the Wise, All-Knowing 2 It should be noted that Darwin’s theory has not remained static. As will be shown further, the theory has been refined several times and has become a powerful explanatory factor in life sciences, from abiogenesis to zoology. 3 Forrest (2010), p. 171 4 Cf. Riexinger (2009), Bigliardi (2014) and Jalalel (2014) 5 Cf. Cavatorta & Merone [Ed.] (2016), Rougier [Ed.] (2008), Lauzière (2015), & Adraoui (2013) 2 Creator and not the result of accidental occurrence. “Or were they created by nothing, or were they the creators [of themselves]?”6 This research is important as an addition to the knowledge about Salafis. Indeed, the Salafi Weltanschauung demands that one see reality not in its current historical context, but rather through the eternal truths contained in God’s revelation (the Qur’an) and the examples set forth by the prophet (the hadith) as well as the customs of early Muslims.7 Salafis are spread across the world, from Arab states to Western democracies. As the Salafi “movement” is so widespread and increasingly attractive to youths,8 it is vital that political scientists enhance their comprehension of the Salafi ideology. We now know much about Salafi beliefs, but their confrontation with what is arguably one of the pillars of modern science, the theory of evolution, has yet to be explored. Indeed, understanding the manner in which Salafis treat the question of the theory of evolution, especially the rhetoric mobilized to discredit the theory, can shed more light on how they view the world,