16AR21-13

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AR 21:13 - Forensic evidence and slippery science

In this issue:

FORENSIC SCIENCE - think Hollywood's CSI may be stretching the truth here? You have no idea.

ISLAM - "centuries of commentary, debate, and context have long been the exclusive domain of those with a strong command of Arabic" - until now

Apologia Report 21:13 (1,286)

March 31, 2016

FORENSIC SCIENCE

AR has regularly featured news of massive failure in multiple science disciplines. And while we don't want to send the message that science can never be trusted, we do believe that such news should discourage those most given to hubris.

The March 11, 2016 edition of Science magazine <www.goo.gl/cwRs8f> is a special issue on forensics. Martin Enserink's introduction announces that "A 2009 report from the National Research Council found <www.goo.gl/Y55gJ0> that the analysis of many types of evidence ... lacks a solid foundation. Even DNA evidence, seen as the gold standard, can land innocent people in jail, now that new technologies can detect minuscule amounts of genetic material. ...

"Given the history of forensics, new techniques [many of which are discussed in this issue] will need to be validated more thoroughly than past methods were. And whether the methods are new or familiar, analysts, lawyers, and judges will all need to adopt a more scientific way of thinking. Bad forensic science has already wrecked too many lives."

The first feature article, "Sizing Up the Evidence" by Kelly Servick, uses the subtitle "Statisticians are on a mission to reverse a legacy of junk science in the courtroom." It suggests that the Hollywood version of forensic science portrayed by CSI and similar TV dramas has a long way to go. The aforementioned report concluded that "No forensic method has been rigorously shown to have the capacity to consistently, and with a high degree of certainty, demonstrate a connection between evidence and a specific individual or source....

"One study of 169 fingerprint examiners found 7.5% false negatives ... and 0.1% false positives.... When some of the examiners were retested on some of the same prints after 7 months, they repeated only about 90% of their exclusions and 89% of their individualizations."

In another feature article from this issue of Science, "When DNA Is Lying" by Douglas Starr, we noted that "In 2013, geneticist Michael Coble of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland, ... asked 108 labs across the country to [examine] a separate DNA sample.... Seventy-three of the labs got it wrong...." (See <www.goo.gl/a9uCnp> for background on this.)

So if you're beginning to wonder, "Whom can I trust?," then you're getting the point. The idea of "progress" is too often seen in a romantic, linear sense; let's not be too hasty.

POSTSCRIPT (Jul 31 '16): The July 2016 cover story of National Geographic, "The Real CSI" (pp34-55) considers much of the same material with its own unique sources and is less hostile toward past shortcomings of law enforcement and the courts.

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ISLAM

The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, et. al., eds. [1] -- a February 28 review in The Daily Beast provides helpful background detail. "Salafists - adherents of a very conservative brand of Islam - have dominated the world market for Qurans for decades.

"Funded by the oil-rich royal family in Saudi Arabia, which has an especially rigid Wahhabi branch of Islam, the Salafis have exported their [views extensively].

"Followers of the Saudi-Wahhabi-Salafi version of Islam in Europe and the United States are increasingly seen by law enforcement as a pool from which radical jihadis can draw recruits." So?

"Pretty much any Quran given out in a da'wa, or religious outreach, program almost anywhere in the world has its roots in Saudi Arabia. Most of them use a translation completed by Yusuf Ali, an Indian-born, British-educated scholar who died in the mid-20th century. Published in 1938, it included not only Ali's translation, but also parenthetical commentary on meaning - much of which has been stripped out by its Salafi adapters."

There's a big change afoot. "Seeing this new translation as a challenge to their orthodoxy in English-speaking countries, Salafis are none too pleased. ...

"The Study Quran, setting the record straight, may come as something of a revelation to Muslims and anyone else interested in Islam who speaks English. It is a formidable academic endeavor, and since it was published in November it has been flying off the shelves.... [Also,] 'very few' of the sources cited in The Study Quran are available in English translation, head editor Seyyed Hossein Nasr told The Daily Beast.

"One soon comes across nuances that are unmentioned or ignored by extremists. The Study Quran notes, for instance, that verse 47:4 - used by ISIS to justify beheadings - focuses on 'the brevity of the act, as it is confined to battle and not a continuous command.' This interpretation would seem to challenge extremists who attempt to carry out such acts on civilians, whether on the streets of London or in Syria.

"The Salafi scholars who have monopolized English-language Muslim resources are disturbed and even frightened by this textual revolution that puts them back in their place.

"Salafism 'was not in the mainstream of the Muslim tradition,' said Nasr. 'It rejected centuries of Islamic thought.' The scholars contributing to The Study Quran, who are both Sunni and Shia, also break with the ultra-Orthodox animus against Shiism. ...

"Though Sunni Islam formally lacks a clerical class, Niamatullah [Abu Eesa Niamatullah - a British Salafi with a large social media presence] expressed concern that those who lack proper religious or academic training might be swayed from the orthodox path by the new edition. ...

"The Study Quran fills part of what some scholars see as a perpetual hole in the study of Islam. Quranic translations abound, but centuries of commentary, debate, and context have long been the exclusive domain of those with a strong command of Arabic. ...

"Ali wasn't the first translator of the Quran into English, of course. One of the earliest widely available translations was by George Sale, and it served as the standard for nearly two centuries. It's rife with annotations that point to Sale's Christian understanding of the 'Mohammedan's' holy scripture. More recent translations have come from feminists and creative translations that assign each Arabic word one - and only one - English equivalent.

"And The Study Quran surely won't be the last. The authors' main goal, after all, is not a definitive translation - but a demonstration that different interpretations were 'established, well known, and rigorously discussed over the centuries,' Nasr said." <www.goo.gl/tN1kx6>

Richard Ostling (former religion editor for Time magazine) gives a resounding "amen" in "Attention journalists: A Muslim landmark that belongs on your desk." <www.goo.gl/yqK4qR>

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