What is Irtiqa?
Irtiqa is Salman Hameed's blog. A few years ago (before Facebook killed many of the blogs), it used to track stories of science & religion, especially those related to Muslim societies. That is still one of its foci, but now it dovetails more of Salman's interests including film, astronomy, science fiction, and science outreach in both Pakistan and the US.
Irtiqa literally means evolution in Urdu. But it does not imply only biological evolution. Instead, it is an all encompassing word used for evolution of the universe, biological evolution, and also for biological/human development. While it has created confusion in debates over biological evolution in South Asia, it provides a nice integrative name for this blog. For further information, contact Salman Hameed.
The blog banner is designed by Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad. You can find all his creative endeavors at Orangie.
Salman Hameed
Salman is an astronomer and Associate Professor of Integrated Science & Humanities at Hampshire College, Massachusetts. Currently, he is working on understanding the rise of creationism in contemporary Islamic world and how Muslims view the relationship between science & religion. He is also working with historian Tracy Leavelle at Creighton University to analyze reconciliation efforts between astronomers and Native Hawaiians over telescopes on top of sacred Mauna Kea in Hawaii. He teaches “History and Philosophy of Science & Religion” with philosopher Laura Sizer, and “Science in the Islamic World”, both at Hampshire College. Salman and Laura Sizer are also responsible for the ongoing Hampshire College Lecture Series on Science & Religion, and you can find videos of all these lectures below. Contact information here.
LABELS
- Arab Spring
- art
- Astronomy
- Astronomy Pictures from Pakistan
- atheism
- beliefs of scientists
- Catholic Church and science
- creationism
- education
- education in muslim world
- ethics morality and science
- evolution
- faith and medicine
- film theater and television
- Friday Journal Club
- general
- history
- humor
- intelligent design
- Irtiqa Conversations
- Islam and Modernity
- islam and science
- Islamic Calendar
- islamic creationism
- Judaism and science
- media
- Muslims in Europe
- off topic
- Pakistan
- politics of science and religion
- posts by Nidhal Guessoum
- primates
- pseudoscience
- religion and environmentalism
- Religion and Health
- Religion and Technology
- Saturday Video
- science and Native religions
- science and religion books
- science fiction
- science in muslim world
- science of belief
- science of morality
- science religion and terrorism
- UFO religions
Blog Archive
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2015
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March
(9)
- Talk at McGill University this Friday on Islamic C...
- Three excellent lectures by John Hedley Brooke on ...
- The killing in Bangladesh for unbelief and in the ...
- On the issue of letter to Iran by Republican senat...
- Fourth episode of SkA: Exploring baby solar system...
- Jim Al-Khalili on Ibn al-Haytham's "Book of Optics"
- Saturday Video: The truth about Abdus Salam (Part ...
- Saturday Video: Evolution via They Might Be Giants...
- A somewhat strange opinion piece in Nature on Musl...
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March
(9)
3 comments:
1. I do recall reading something written by Salam about him meeting Einstein at Princeton, and when Salam described his work, Einstein professed either ignorance or lack of interest. BUT, I don't recall Salam writing that he then told Einstein that he wasn't interested in Relativity or whatever else Einstein was working on. I also recall watching an interview where he expressed deep admiration for Newton, Dirac, Einstein, Feynman, and maybe Maxwell and Faraday (memory fails me; but it's on youtube).
2. As far as hagiographer articles about our "heros" this is a cultural problem, but I think in case of Salam an outlier; in case of Salam the Pakistani media typically refuses to acknowledge his accomplishment at all. But perhaps this is also because of the abstruse nature of his work. Personally, I would have preferred if Hoodbhoy has instead spent more time explaining Salam's work (e.g. can anyone explain "Renormalization" in layman's terms in under 5 minutes?).
I think this is only the first part - so I expect that some of Salam's physics will also be a focus in the second part. Also, please keep an eye out for a documentary about Salam coming out from Kailoola productions (probably later this year): http://www.kailoola.com/abdussalamdocufilm/home.php
Wonderful exposition by Pravez Hoodbhoy.
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