Page 154 - Solution, the values of the Qurʼan

152 SOLUTION THE VALUES OF THE QUR'AN

Darwin's theory had another significant dimension. Darwin based the
development of living beings, including human beings, on the term "the

struggle for survival." According to him, there is a fierce struggle, a
constant conflict, going on in nature. In this struggle, the strong always
defeat the weak and thus progress occurs.
Darwin maintained that this "struggle for survival" is also true for
human races. Even the sub-title in his book The Origin of Species made his
racist outlook apparent:
"The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of
Favoured Races in the Struggle of Life."
According to Darwin, Europeans are the favored race. The native
American peoples, Africans and all other races and nations, on the other
hand, constituted the primitive races who remained behind in the process
of evolution. According to this distorted rationale, domesticating,
enslaving and even killing these lower races are legitimate, just as it is
legitimate to do the same to apes or other animals. For the same reason,
Darwin thought, their property could also be confiscated. In his book,
pertaining to lower races, Darwin stated the following:

At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized
races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races
throughout the world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes… will
no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest allies will
then be wider. 16
As these statements show, Darwin was clearly a racist. He believed
that Europeans are superior to other nations and thus entitled to enslave
and annihilate them.
This theory, which was an adaptation of the theory of evolution to
societies, is called Social Darwinism. It laid the major ground for
legitimizing both imperialism and racism. One of the countries where
Social Darwinism was warmly embraced was Germany.