Impending Danger – Islamic Investments in Biotechnology By Muhammad Ibn Wazir

It was only recently that a Bahrain-based investment  firm announced the launch of a  Nanotechnology Fund, a private equity fund which will invest in shares and equity-oriented securities of companies with a particular emphasis on global nanotechnology companies including technology and biotechnology companies which benefit from nanotechnology.  Although we do not wish to deal with the issue of nanotechnology which involves the manipulation of matter at the molecular level to change the structure of a particular material to give it tensile strength etc, what concerns us is the proposed foray of Shari’ah compliant funds into the debatable and indeed extremely dangerous area of biotechnology, a new species of technology that seeks to tamper with the fair nature created by the Almighty in His Wisdom, by implanting genes from one organism into another, a technique euphemistically known as Gene Splicing, but more commonly referred to as Genetic Modification (GM).

Although many in today’s world tend to look upon GM as a new ‘buzz word’ offering great promise for human progress, the fact is otherwise. Although ostensibly pursued as a means of solving food crises by improving yield, biotechnology poses many untold dangers, not only to human health, but to the larger environment we live in. Muslims ought to be more wary of its dangers, particularly since they are warned in their Holy Book, the Qur’an that Iblis the arch foe of mankind has vowed to tempt man to change the nature created by Allah. The relevant passage from Surah An-Nisa (Verse 119) has Satan telling the Almighty in all his arrogance: “I will take of your servants a portion marked off. I will mislead them and I will create in them false desires. I will order them to slit the ears of cattle and to change the (fair) nature created by God”.  It is indeed very telling that the Holy Book revealed over 1400 years ago should inform man of a development he stumbled upon scarcely more than two decades ago. The scholars of old believed that this changing of the fair nature of God referred to shaving off the beard, but we now know that the message passed down to us has far more damning implications than previously thought.

Dangerous arguments

Despite the clear cut injunction in the Qur’an warning man of Satan’s words, we find a few scholars attempting to soft-peddle the injunction, among them Mohd Safian and Yasmin Hanani in their recent paper ‘Islam and Biotechnology’ prepared for the forum on ‘Science and Religion’ held in Philadelphia, USA in 2005. Citing for instance the verses of the Qur’an given above, they argue that if the change falls under the category of ‘essential type (daruriyat) such a change and modification is permissible such as when the genetic engineering is done to reduce reliance on pesticides and herbicides. What they forget here is that this is what the GM agenda is ostensibly all about – benefiting humanity by manipulating plants and livestock to give better yield, better taste and reduce dependence on chemical agents or the natural forces, an argument as we shall see below is a fallacious one. Furthermore if something is prohibited in the Shari’ah, it is not for man to decide that if it results in good, it is permissible, for man with his limited intellect cannot perceive the  Divine Wisdom behind its prohibition.  Safian and Hanani also cite a hadith in support of their contentions where the Prophet is supposed to have approved of the practice of crossbreeding of the date palm resorted to by some Arabs. The hadith in question has it that when the Prophet saw a man indulging in cross-breeding the date palm, he commented that it is better to let the plants grow naturally. However when the Arabs followed the Prophet’s suggestion they found that the yield of the plants was not as satisfactory as before and when this was brought to the notice of the Prophet, he replied “You are more knowledgeable in your worldly affairs”  (Muslim. Kital Al-Fada’il), implying that while he was to be consulted in religious matters, the people may know better in their worldly affairs. They therefore argue that the Shari’ah does not place strict limitations in worldly affairs “provided they are used, managed and utilized for the benefit of the common people”. It is thus held that the principle of ‘public good’ (masalih mursalah) may be applicable to justify the necessity of changing of God’s creation using GM technology.

This argument certainly does not hold water. For one thing the ‘public good’ in today’s context is often decided by vested interests with an agenda of their own. For instance GM firms would always argue that what they’re doing is for the public good by creating crops that give better yields, surreptitiously concealing the fact that their motives are profit-driven and are designed to create dependence among farmers and ultimately the common masses as we shall shortly see. For another thing ‘the public good’ can by no means supersede the Divine Law as laid down in the Qur’an. As for the hadith that has been cited to justify GM, we need not say more suffice to say that there is a considerable difference between cross-breeding of plants or animals which takes place within nature albeit by human endeavour, and the process of forcible gene insertion by artificial manipulation.

Genetic engineering differs from traditional breeding in that it allows the possesors of this technology such as biotechnology corporations to combine organisms that they will never be able to combine naturally as for instance tomato and fish. Take for instance the case of a frost-resistant tomato created by splicing into its genetic code a gene that protects a flounder from the cold. Thus GM goes against the natural order in which nature operates. This brings it well within the realm of changing the nature created by Allah which Iblis vowed he would tempt man into.

Bitter truth

It is not only in the Muslim world that Genetically Modified Foods are frowned upon, but also in Western Europe where consumer resistance to GM has been strong, thanks largely  to the efforts of environmental groups like the Greens of Germany, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, It is mainly in the U.S with its emphasis on technology and a misplaced fundamentalist Judeo-Christian notion of subjugating nature to serve man’s ends that GM foods or products have gained some acceptance. This needless to say is a far cry from the Islamic ideal of the relationship between man and nature which is one of trusteeship.

GM is not without its dangers, and this is not simply confined to the greed of multinational corporates bent on creating a humanity dependent on their transgenic seeds or crops. US- based Bio-tech conglomerates like Monsanto would have us believe that GM foods are crucial to feed and provide balanced nutrients to ‘chronically hungry people’, especially in Third World Countries (Monsanto 29/10/2004). The fact is otherwise. Not only do these firms enjoy Intellectual Property Rights vesting in them the sole right of distributing these seeds, but are also highly profit-driven with a monopolist agenda as apparent in the ‘Terminator gene’ technology they have resorted to and their manifold attempts to oust natural crops from farms in the belief that they will eventually have a captive market and could raise their prices at will, therefore holding not only farmers, but also consumers to ransom.

But that’s not all. It is rightly argued that crops and foods subjected to genetic engineering may pose significant risks to human health and the larger environment. The fact is that the precise nature of the impact of GM foods on human health has not been assessed fully since long term control studies on human volunteers fed with GM has yet to be undertaken. A little publicized research finding by the British scientist Dr.Arpad Pusztal recently revealed that GM potatoes could damage the immune system of rats. Thus there is reason to believe that in spite of assurances given by the USA’s Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) that such products do not pose any ‘unique safety concerns’, there is a strong risk that they could have detrimental effects on human health in the long term.

For instance, we know that plants have a certain content of natural toxins in them. With GM there is the possibility that crops produced from GM seeds would with time yield food that contain a higher level of natural toxins or produce altogether new toxins which could pose a threat to human health. Furthermore, there exists the threat of allergic reactions as a result of inserting genes derived from substances to which certain people are allergic, such as for instance peanuts, which in some could result in fatal consequences. That interfering in the natural process of things poses detrimental consequences to human health was recently seen in the outbreak of mad cow disease which is perhaps a taste of things to come if the GM trend continues unabated. Although not strictly a GM product, the use of the disposed remnants of dead cattle as a protein source to feed cattle instead of the Soybean that was used earlier, was the singular factor that led to these natural herbivores contracting Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or Mad Cow Disease for short, with horrific repercussions to the British Meat industry and to human lives.
As for the environmental impact of GM crops, this is already well attested. Take for instance the case of Bt corn where the gene of the Bacillus thuringensis (Bt) was introduced into corn, rice and potatoes in countries like the US in order to make them resistant to pests that could harm these crops. However, it was recently found that Bt poses a serious threat to the eco-system. Consider the case of GM corn varieties developed by firms such as Monsanto, Mycogen and Ciba-Geigy which have incorporated the Bt gene to make them resistant to the Corn Borer and which are marketed under high-sounding brand names such as YieldGard, NatureGard and Maximizer.

It was recently established by a Cornell University research team that the pollen from Bt corn, when eaten by the larvae of the monarch Butterfly, killed nearly half and stunted the rest. The Monarch Butterfly, it should be pointed out, is the natural protector of the corn, as it feeds on pests injurious to the corn plant. What the Bt gene does is kill the pests as well as the butterfly. The pests, it is argued, could evolve strains resistant to Bt within as little as five years, but the butterfly which could control the pest would have been eliminated by then, posing a threat not only to the corn, but also the larger eco-system. Further it was discovered by the Soil Association of the UK that the death rate of Lacewing insects was doubled when they were fed on plant-eating larvae raised on GM maize. Damage has also been reported to bees feeding on GM rapeseed which had been modified to produce a natural insecticide intended to kill only caterpillars and beetles.

Another danger is the very real possibility of GM crops passing their engineered traits to natural plants by way of seed or pollen, contaminating natural plants in the vicinity and perhaps even further away, thus upsetting the natural order and posing a greater threat to the environment than meets the eye. Thus the threat posed to the ecosystem upon which the fragile balance of nature exists is a very real one that cannot be lightly brushed aside. Much is at stake and the sooner we realize it, the better.

Better Solutions

What is indeed paradoxical is the fact that the very nation that tells us that GM is necessary for overcoming famine is one of those few nations that destroy surplus grain or livestock as a price control mechanism. The US is a country known for its strong capitalist drive where ethical considerations do not figure at all and where even life is dependent on price. Livestock is needlessly slaughtered in the thousands or perhaps hundreds of thousands to be burned or buried while millions of tonnes of wheat is dumped into the sea simply to ensure that the price resulting from an oversupply is not compromised.

What is indeed paradoxical is that it is these very same interests that seek to promote GM as the only solution to world hunger, concealing the fact that food scarcity is not born out of low yields, but is rather a distribution problem as rightly pointed out by the Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen. At certain places and at certain seasons there is a bounty while in others there is scarcity. The solution therefore lies is proper storage, distribution and greater co-operation between regions and nations where the bounty of one will meet the scarcity of another in times of need.  Furthermore there are many areas in which research firms and investors could invest their monies in other than bio-technology which costs millions of dollars a year. For instance in the development of phytotherapeutical drugs derived from medicinal herbs for which there is a dearth of funding and research. As such it is high time, Islamic investors abandoned any grandiose and ill-conceived plans they may have had to invest in the area of bio-technology and instead focused on more promising areas such as the development of natural medicinal drugs, clean fuel sources and other worthwhile investments that could help them fulfill their role as socially responsible corporates while at the same time discharging their obligation to the Almighty.

God we are told in the Qur’an created the world in balance, that is to say in perfect harmony. It is up to man as his vicegerent on earth and as the guardian of fair nature to ensure that it stays that way. Man has no need to manipulate nature to serve his ends. It is already there in nature, only if he can look past his greed and follow the Divine Law.

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