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Extremism is getting embedded in the medical profession

December 4th, 2011 | 53 Comments

By Abdul Majeed:

Science is supposed to inculcate rational thinking among its practitioners. The whole scientific methodology relies on definitive evidence and not just myths or fable. Paradoxically, in case of religious extremism, it has been observed that students of science have been actively involved in acts of terrorism and their scientific education failed to change their narrow-mindedness and bigotry.

Research by Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog has shown that engineers are more susceptible to join Islamic Radical groups than other people. Similar data is not available about Doctors. However, based on information about the terrorist networks and terrorists themselves it is not difficult to find doctors in prominent roles. Most famous and perhaps dangerous is Dr Ayman-az-Zawahiri, a pediatrician from Egypt believed to be the second-in-command of Al Qaeda and the chief ideologue. Abu Hafiza, the master-mind of Madrid bombings, Dr Akmal Waheed, accused of having links with Al-Qaeda, attacking the convoy of the Karachi corps commander in 2004 and providing financial aid to the banned Jundullah activists, Bilal Abdulla, who attempted a terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport in 2007, Dr Nidal Malik Hassan, who killed 13 people and wounded 29 others in the worst shooting ever to take place on an American military base at Fort Hood, located just outside Killeen, Texas, Dr Ali Abdullah, who abetted terrorists in attempted murder of wounded Ahmedis in Jinnah Hospital, Lahore, Professor Dr Zafar Iqbal Chohdary, a pioneer of Lashkar e Tayba and last but not the least, Dr Afia Siddiqui(though not a practicing physician/surgeon, she did her PhD in neuroscience), who was one of six alleged al-Qaeda members who bought $19 million worth of blood in Monrovia, Liberia, immediately prior to the September 11, 2001, attacks and who was married in 2003 to al-Qaeda member Ammar al-Baluchi, in Karachi. Al Baluchi is a nephew of al-Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Khaled Ahmed, veteran journalist, noted in his book that “In 2005, I was asked by the Lahore Chapter of doctors’ association to address them on current national issues. I was prepared to discuss the problem of growing religious violence, but when I saw that most of the medical specialists in the high-income bracket were sporting flowing beards and already making speeches in favour of an Islamic revolution, I changed my mind and did not broach the subject of increased religiosity among the scientists in general and doctors in particular. The meeting was finally dominated by Dr Israr Ahmad, himself a medical doctor, and Dr Amer Aziz who had been to Afghanistan to treat Osama bin Laden.”

(Khaled Ahmed, Sectarian War, Oxford University Press, Karachi; 2011; pp 173) The growing radicalization has also caused problems for doctors aspiring to get training in the United States (US being the country with most advanced training facilities).

According to Dr Saima Zafar, president-elect of the Association of Physicians of Pakistani descent in North America (APPNA), this past year 22 physicians from Pakistan who had managed to get through the rigorous process of residency interviews and were matched with residency programmes lost their spots after being refused visas.

Those already in residency programmes also found their positions precarious. One resident at a prestigious programme who had returned to get married found himself being taken off his return flight to America. His visa was revoked without explanation. His programme at Pennsylvania State University’s Hershey campus announced soon after that it would no longer be recruiting Pakistani medical graduates.

What prompts these people to turn towards extremism is hard to judge. We will examine a few theories about this phenomenon though. Hajra Mumtaz, in an article titled “The benefit of grey” opined, “Science teaches certainties that have the equivalent of a moral upper hand through being absolutely and invariably correct. In this way, we have in people the inclination to either totally accept as right, or totally reject as wrong, ideas and attitudes. And so, quite possibly, we have a society that is one step closer to allowing extreme viewpoints or ideologies to take root.

Students of the social sciences and humanities, by contrast, are taught to navigate their way through endless possibilities with no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer to light the path. Philosophy, history, literature, anthropology, etc are all areas that require the student to traverse the grey areas and the ‘what ifs’, where the only moral upper hand can be logic and rational, coherent debate. These subjects ask the student to take in context and connections and search for alternatives.”

In a research report named “Red Hot Chilli Peppers Islam – Is the Youth in Elite Universities in Pakistan Radical?” It was stated that “The majority believed that madrassah reforms were being imposed by the US and hence were a ruse to manipulate traditional institutions. Majority of respondents also viewed Islam as the right formula for governance. 62% considered Shiites as Non-Muslim. 40% of respondents didn’t believe that imposing military rule was an act of treason. 57% respondents viewed USA as the biggest threat to Muslim Ummah, 43% listed Israel and 33% considered “West” as the biggest threat to Muslim Ummah. 46% were willing to believe that the Taliban were sponsored the US.” The study concluded that, “they[students of Elite Universities] suffer from a closed mind or are prone to exclusivity rather than inclusivity. The ‘us’ versus ‘them’ divide compounded with greater insensitivity towards social and political issues has created an elite generation which may be incapable of mending fences with other groups. Being affluent these youth may have greater stakes in not turning towards active militancy. But then, cases such as Faisal Shehzad or Afia Siddiqui can always happen. These two cases, in fact, indicate the possibility of latent radicalism transforming into radicalism and militancy.

This study did not find any remarkable difference between the thinking of the youth going to elite institutions. Access to better education did not necessarily produce better quality thinking” The sample for this study included 2 medical colleges as well. A worrying thought is that extremism in medical professional is increasing and not decreasing. A “radd-e-Fahashi seminar” was held in a medical college in Lahore. In the same medical college, Hizb ut Tehrir(a banned organization) conducted many workshops and a similar organization “Sout-ul-Ummah” are quite active there. Student wings of Religio-political parties are active in medical colleges especially in Faisalabad, Multan and Bahawalpur. Doctors are considered as one of the most educated group of people. If they are treading towards the path of extremism, what hope there is for illiterate people who form the majority of Pakistan’s populace?

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Filed under: Opinion · Tags: Abdul Majeed, doctors, extremism, people

53 Responses to "Extremism is getting embedded in the medical profession"

Sachbol says:

December 8, 2011 at 3:18 am

IMHO,
No need to look far. Everything about Islam, Pakistan and etc become very clear if one accept Arabs as an example of Islamic wisdom and intelligence at peek and inbreeding as the highest moral point of human social life. Both have been the radical concepts since 7th century and still stuck there in that medieval time priod. The legitimate concerns of Indians include both be kept out of the Indic land and wish them well as long as they remain out.
BM, have not yet identified a Paki pretending to be a whiteman. I have no idea why such insistence upon accpeying Isalm’s claim on Abrahamic Godhood as both Jews and Christian reject such claim by Islam. You will never find any Jew or Christain trying to link with islamic traditions , infact they despise such linkage.
Bade Miyan says:

December 10, 2011 at 3:38 am

NC,
Sorry for the late response. Work didn’t give me much time to write a detailed reply.
Your theory about Judaism is only partly true. Jews, even who are for most part anti-religious, have a strong cultural (or whatever you want to call it) affinity to Judaism. And conversion to Judaism is not an easy task by any means. It’s not true that all they are concerned about is material success in this world. In fact, that is one of the typical(and worst) stereotypes about the Jews, now spread with gusto in Muslim countries. It’s just that, for whatever reasons, and I can only guess, the authority of the priest is almost negligible. It may be due to the diffused nature of their existence. People who call themselves Jews are diverse in their ethnicity(though there is a counter claim to that) spread over a vast area. That hasn’t allowed a dominant discourse to develop. The problems that you see in Muslim world is of a recent vintage and has been exacerbated by the buying power of Saudis. I doubt if we would see the same issues had oil been discovered in Central Asia.

“They are an intelligent bunch, and carrying the subcontinental inclusive genus, they are ideally suited for carrying out reformation.”

There is nothing special about subcontinental genes. The golden age of Islam was driven by Central Asians both intellectually and militarily. I don’t have the article with me now but there was a wonderful write up on this subject with regard to the contribution of Central Asians to the glory days of Islam. In fact, I would argue that the grasslands of steppes promoted a particular independence of spirit that made them unique iconoclasts. The author of Baburnama is far from an unsure, inferiority ridden individual. I didn’t see any evidence of the “acute defensiveness and lack of self-assuredness” that you talk about. It’s exactly the opposite. The lag that Muslims displayed in taking up European education is typical of any power that has to face the cruel truth of superiority of a rival power. You forget that the superiority of European education first showed itself in Bengal where Hindus typically were the feudal class. That realization traveled late towards the West. The earliest evidence of this recognition appears in Ghalib’s genius when he came face to face with the manifestation of European power in Calcutta. By then, it was at least 60-70 years too late. The resistance to European education didn’t come only from Muslims. As late as my grandfather’s generation, it was common for them to learn Farsi in schools.

“But importantly they were aided by the multiple theological sources within Hindusim itself. For instance, Vidyasagar prove it with scriptural authority that widow remarriage was allowed in Hinduism. ”

You are missing the point. All this scriptural debates would have been useless had Hindus not been in such a sorry plight and if Bentick was not there to show them the stick. Sati was banned due to the resoluteness of Bentick and Col. Sleeman. Once it was rigorously enforced with heavy fines, pious Hindus understood the scriptures much better.

“Now, Islam didn’t have some of these pitfals to begin with, and they were also in power for a very long time. Did they first need to go down to the bottom to start making changes?”

It’s simple. There was hardly any need for it. A culture at its zenith doesn’t have time for that sort of thing. I mean who would they compare themselves with? The Queen’s emissary Sir Thomas Roe had to wait 2 weeks to get audience with the Great Moghul, the defender of faith. Do you really think he would have given him the time of the day to hear what was wrong with his faith? As late as 1850s Ghalib could mock a mullah who chided him for drinking on steps of just not any mosque, but Jama Masjid!! Can you imagine that happening today?

What I am skeptical about is whether a theology(Islamic or otherwise) can provide a universal prescription. But then I’ll have to ask myself if I am asking the right question. It is true that for some reason, the Muslim philosophers in the current age seem curiously timid and restricted and that includes Iqbal as well. There is an implicit assumption that there has to be “boundaries”. But one cannot conclude that it was true for all ages. As a layman, I find it baffling that so many people try to find all conceivable answers from 700 or so ayats. To be honest, the followers have to take some blame. In this sense, the Prophet suffers unfairly from a detailed history.

The sorry by-products of Bengal Renaissance were not due to Raja Ram Mohun Roy but his less gifted successors who took whatever the British fed them hook, line, and sinker.

I would agree with you that Muslims don’t need to plumb the bottom before finding a way up but I don’t agree that SA or Iran are going to show the way. Turkey is already being touted as somewhat of an example and that in spite of Abduallah Gul being quite religious. It’s not that he has suddenly discovered secular virtues but I am sure he sees the benefit of tying Turkey with Europe and hence has had to moderate his stance. Those local factors ultimately are going to be more important. In a way, in tying Muslim’s intellectual regeneration to SA or Iran, you are unwittingly reenforcing the concept of a monolith Ummah that looks to SA or Iran for guidance. That, I am sure you will agree, has been the usual and incorrect criticism leveled against Muslims.
rex minor says:

December 12, 2011 at 3:57 am

@Mythbuster

Here is a question, you beed to answer before you discover the answers to your seceral questions!

Who is currently in power in the Pashtun land? If your answer is President Karzai in Afghanistan and President Zardari in the autonomous region of Pakistan, then this is your denk fehler/ an error in your thinking!
And my answer would be that the Pashtuns are in power in both parts of their land! The names mentioned in your questions had a similar status in ancient times that the current intruders have!

Rex Minor