There is a very popular form of apologetic literature among Muslims, based on the notion that modern science and technology is congruent with, or even foreshadowed in, the sacred sources of Islam. It’s bad enough that this species of pseudoscience has a large following among the general public. What is worse is that significant numbers of devout Muslim professionals, particularly in the applied sciences, believe and promote this dreck. (See An Illusion of Harmony.)

One consequence of this, however, is that devout Muslim authors will often submit lower-key versions of this apologetic literature to international applied science journals. (Almost always lower tier journals, as you would expect.) Now, I don’t know much about rejection rates in such journals; my reviewing experience is in entirely different fields. But knowing, as anyone in academia does, about the imperfections of peer review, I’m not surprised a couple occasionally get through.

Interestingly, two cardiology papers of this apologetic nature have just been brought to my attention. One is “The heart and cardiovascular system in the Qur’an and Hadeeth,” by mostly US-based Muslim medical people. The other is less serious, since it’s only a letter to the editor: “Islamic legacy of cardiology: Inspirations from the holy sources” by three Turkish academic cardiologists.

Soon I expect half the Islamic apologists on the Internet will be citing these as Western academic confirmation of the miraculous knowledge contained in the Quran and other sacred sources. So it goes…