Islamic Ethics and the Genome Question pdf

Islamic Ethics and the Genome Question Edited by Mohammed Ghaly

BOOK’S PREFACE

This volume originated from the proceedings of the three-day international seminar “Islamic Ethics and the Genome Question”, organized by the Research Center for Islamic Legislation & Ethics (CILE) in Doha, Qatar, between 3rd and 5th April 2017.1

This seminar makes part of the CILE series of interdisciplinary seminars which solicit contributions from researchers, scholars and experts in various fields in order to address key ethical questions from an Islamic perspective.

 Like other seminars in the series, this seminar was preceded by a Call-For-Papers (CFP), espoused with a background paper explaining its main themes and key questions.2

All submissions were reviewed by an internal committee and a limited number of the submissions was selected. Besides the submissions coming from the CFP, direct invitations were sent to some participants, whose published research shows their ability to cover topics that were not addressed by the CFP submissions.

Throughout the three days of the seminar, the two groups, coming from the CFP and direct invitations, presented their papers and feedback on each other’s papers and exchanged ideas and insights on many issues related to the main themes of the seminar.

Benefiting from the intensive discussions during the seminar, the authors worked on revising their papers. Finally, a few new papers were written after the seminar in order to cover some lacunas revealed by the discussions during the seminar.

A post-seminar internal review was made inside CILE then the selected material went through the peer-review process managed by Brill. The papers which successfully went through these various layers of review are included in this volume.

Throughout the long journey, which started with mere proposals of rough ideas about the seminar up until this publication, I have received invaluable help and support from a great number of people whose list is too long to be included here.

Every researcher is well aware that working on refining the language and unifying the referencing style of pieces written by different authors is time-consuming and laborious.

Most of this work was accomplished by two of our brilliant students of “Islamic Thought and Applied Ethics” specialization in the College of Islamic Studies, namely Mariam Taher and Reem Al-Sahlawi. Furthermore, a splendid job was achieved by the two competent and hard-working Research Assistants, Noha Abdel Ghany and Shaimaa Moustafa, who assisted me in my current two research projects funded by the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF). Additionally, all colleagues working in CILE were very supportive throughout all the elevations and depressions of this extensive journey.3

Finally, my due thanks go to Dr. P.S. Van Koningsveld, who worked temporarily as the Managing Editor of this series. His advice and wisdom were crucial for bringing this publication to light.

I keep the last word here for my dear family, to whom I remain indebted my whole life. My wife, Karima, has always been far and beyond the ideal woman I could have ever imagined in my dreams.

Personally, my children, the twin Maryam and Khadija, Mustapha, Aisha and Hamza have practically demonstrated that “pure innocence” exists and I hope they will be up to the challenges ahead in their life, while keeping their precious innocence intact.

My moth-er, Fawiza, is an example of the simple villager whose strength lies in her ability to selflessly give without waiting for a reward in return. My late father, Mustafa, is the great personality in my life whom I miss dearly. I say to these great figures in my life: “I am related to you all not only through a shared genome, but also through unbated love and mutual care”.