Post by Amaris on Sept 28, 2011 0:33:13 GMT
Click link to read the article.
hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_INDONESIA_MEDICINE_OF_THE_PROPHET?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
I really liked the quote on the View From Number 80 site who reported on this article.
www.number80.co.uk/
hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_INDONESIA_MEDICINE_OF_THE_PROPHET?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Like much of Islamic medicine, it's grounded on the saying that "Allah did not create a disease for which he did not also create a cure."
I really liked the quote on the View From Number 80 site who reported on this article.
Then why did he create the disease in the first place? Boredom? Cruelty?
Islamic Healing - instead of importing some of the more admirable products of western culture such as sexual equality, human rights or free speech, Islam is embracing the dregs instead. We have already seen the rise of Islamic creationism in the person of the laughable Harun Yahya and now we have "Islamic healing". Yes, the religion of peace has its own system of medicine, involving herbs and exorcisms. We learn "...a growing number of Muslims in Southeast Asia turning away from Western medical care in favor of al-Tibb al-Nawabi, or Medicine of the Prophet, a loosely defined discipline based on the Quran and other Islamic texts and traditional remedies." Furthermore "The trend in Islamic treatments, cosmetics and toiletries is often associated with fundamentalists who charge that Western, chemically laced prescriptions aim to poison Muslims or defile them with insulin and other medicines made from pigs."
Of course the real motivation is in fact good old-fashioned profit, just as it is in western "alternative" or "complementary" medicine. For all the whining about the greed of "Big Pharma" the alt. med. quacks are just as keen to coin it in - the World Health Organization says "Herbal treatments are the most popular form of traditional medicine, and are highly lucrative in the international marketplace. Annual revenues in Western Europe reached US$ 5 billion in 2003-2004. In China sales of products totaled US$ 14 billion in 2005. Herbal medicine revenue in Brazil was US$ 160 million in 2007." Naturally the Islamic medicine practitioners want a piece of this and are prepared to use their religion to line their pockets.
Quite how much of this profit funds Islamist groups is unknown but it would appear to be a useful source of revenue for some of them, "Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaida-linked militant network that is essentially banned in Indonesia, is believed to have links to some herbal manufacturers and operate many of the country's Islamic medicine clinics..." 80 can hear the ad jingle "buy an Islamic pill, kill a blasphemous infidel". In the real world the only medicine that works is that which is evidence-based and which has shown to be efficacious in properly mounted, double-blinded trials - the rest is b***cks, comforting b***cks maybe, but still b***cks. Yes, Big Pharma can be greedy and unscrupulous - but so can Big Quacka.
Of course the real motivation is in fact good old-fashioned profit, just as it is in western "alternative" or "complementary" medicine. For all the whining about the greed of "Big Pharma" the alt. med. quacks are just as keen to coin it in - the World Health Organization says "Herbal treatments are the most popular form of traditional medicine, and are highly lucrative in the international marketplace. Annual revenues in Western Europe reached US$ 5 billion in 2003-2004. In China sales of products totaled US$ 14 billion in 2005. Herbal medicine revenue in Brazil was US$ 160 million in 2007." Naturally the Islamic medicine practitioners want a piece of this and are prepared to use their religion to line their pockets.
Quite how much of this profit funds Islamist groups is unknown but it would appear to be a useful source of revenue for some of them, "Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaida-linked militant network that is essentially banned in Indonesia, is believed to have links to some herbal manufacturers and operate many of the country's Islamic medicine clinics..." 80 can hear the ad jingle "buy an Islamic pill, kill a blasphemous infidel". In the real world the only medicine that works is that which is evidence-based and which has shown to be efficacious in properly mounted, double-blinded trials - the rest is b***cks, comforting b***cks maybe, but still b***cks. Yes, Big Pharma can be greedy and unscrupulous - but so can Big Quacka.
www.number80.co.uk/