In “The Middle East is ripe for a scientific revolution”, (New Scientist 27 April 2011) Ahmed Zewail offers,
I see three essential ingredients for progress. First is the building of human resources by promoting literacy, ensuring participation of women in society and improving education. Second, there is a need to reform national constitutions to allow freedom of thought, minimise bureaucracy, reward merit, and create credible- and enforceable- legal codes.
Few would argue with that; it’s an essential foundation for intellectual civilization. But many sources question whether the actual state of science in the Western world today, especially in sensitive areas like evolution, provides grounds for hope that intervention will help.
Trying to “Islamize” Darwin would hardly produce a happier Middle East. And what would a Muslim version of Michael Dowd’s thirty-three ring “Christian evolution” circus even look like? We’d need all new adjectives for that one … .
See here, by contrast, for how design theory might help.