Mahmoud Zahar: Unevolved

Sat, Sep 6, 2008 at 2:19:11 pm PDT

Another well-known figure who refuses to believe in evolution: Hamas co-founder Mahmoud Zahar.

GAZA CITY — Mahmoud Zahar doesn’t believe in evolution. And he has not evolved.

For Gaza, this could be a problem.

The fierce co-founder of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, a surgeon by training, spent 20 minutes after a recent interview with CBC News insisting that evolution is false.

After all, said Zahar, a donkey can eat shrubbery and survive, but a human cannot.

“So, a donkey is more evolved than a human? No,” scoffs Zahar, seemingly satisfied that he has demonstrated the absurdity of Charles Darwin’s theory. Allah, not evolution, made man, he says, and Allah has made Gaza Islamic.