Quarks and the Koran: Iran’s Islamic Embrace of Science | Newsweek International | Newsweek.com

Quarks and the Koran: Iran’s Islamic Embrace of Science | Newsweek International | Newsweek.com: "Mohammad Ali Shomali's clerical robes are immaculate, his manner urbane. Fluent in English, with a Ph.D. from Britain's Manchester University, he spends his days in the holy city of Qum studying advanced stem-cell research and the mapping of the genome. Shomali, at 44, is clearly not your run-of-the-mill mullah, even if he insists that he is. 'We live in a religious country with a religious government,' says the turbaned Shia cleric, 'so we have to know what our religion tells us about modern issues.' Along with hundreds of other mullahs in Qum, Shomali is at work trying to define an Islamic context for advanced scientific work from nanos to, yes, nuclear technology."