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A case of bogus science..(Omar)

Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy in Dawn. 

Dr Rahman (and others like him) reflect a particular type: the third world scientist who is intelligent, trained in his own specialty, is scientifically productive (700 papers) and yet is almost completely untouched by the narrative of science, rationality and "heroic materialism" which is almost normative in the higher reaches of science in the modern world.

This statement is not well worded and may be misunderstood. But those who know Dr Rahman and others like him will recognize what I mean. One can see Dr. Hoodbhoy as a good example of what the un-Rahmans look like. One cannot imagine the roles in this article being switched. i.e one cannot imagine Hoodbhoy writing bullshit about HAARP weapons and Dr. Rahman pointing it out in an article defending the values of science…. 

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4 responses to “A case of bogus science..(Omar)”

  1. Razib Khan

    the existence of entrepreneurial witch-doctors like shaman rahman is why i’m relatively sanguine about the “islamic military threat.” the arabs in the mid-east are another example of the failure of individual accountability and collective action: they’ve made the IDF seem like the spartan 300 for two generations when it really isn’t all that. granted, the musings of shaman rahman could be found worldnetdaily. joseph farah regularly makes stuff like that up.

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  2. Ruchira

    How else can massive tectonic plates be moved by radio waves?
    If faith can move mountains, faith + conspiracy theory surely can move tectonic plates. And if there are scantily clad women working on the project, then the probability of this being true is doubled.
    Is Shaman Rahman an Islamist? How much media publicity has this HAARP-causes-earthquakes-tsunamis claim received in Pakistan? How safe is Hoodbhoy living in that country?

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  3. omar

    Shaman Rahman was in-charge of higher education for several years and is a Musharraf favorite (so he is more an establishment person than a mullah-type Islamist). The HAARP myth has been widely circulated in Pakistan and is regularly reported as hard news in the nationalist press. The security establishment likes to project the US (and India and Israel) as malevolent enemies of Pakistan and this kind of BS suits them perfectly (and is widely disseminated by their known agents in the media). That they can do this while simultaneously getting US aid on a large scale is a tribute to their finesse. Dr. Hoodbhoy has had many threats against him, but he continues to hang in there and speak out. He is a brave man.

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  4. waqas

    Shaman Rahman’s reply to Dr. Hoodbhoy’s article
    http://www.dawn.com/2010/11/20/haarp-a-us-weapon-of-mass-destruction.html
    and here’s the link to the original article
    http://www.dawn.com/2010/10/17/column-the-wondrous-world-of-science-6.html
    My guess is that Shaman Rahman does not actually believe in the conspiracy crap that he has written, it was just a propaganda piece that has already achieved its objective: to create confusion in the minds of middle class Pakistanis of average education. This kind of propaganda is much more dangerous than run of the mill jihadist stuff because
    1)An average middle class Pakistani has global reach, despite visa restrictions and scrutiny
    2)A growing middle class is the only potential threat to the ISI and its hegemonic control of the state power.

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