MS disease is punishment from God, Turkish medical professor argues in academic publication

Medical professor Hüseyin Çaksen from a Turkish state university has drawn ire on social media as his academic publication suggested that multiple sclerosis (MS) disease was a “gift, test, or punishment from Allah.”

Friday January 05 2024 10:31 pm

Duvar English

Turkish medical professor Hüseyin Çaksen on Jan. 4 drew ire as his academic publication calling multiple sclerosis (MS) disease “a gift, test, or punishment from Allah” went viral on social media.

The 2023 article “Patients' Supernatural Beliefs on Cause of Multiple Sclerosis” published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Pediatric Neurology stated, “... although it cannot be scientifically proven, we strongly believe that the main cause of the disease in some MS patients is supernatural reasons such as a gift, test, or punishment from Allah.”

The article finally suggested that medical professionals should be trained in “supernatural causes with religious context.”

Çaksen is a faculty member of state-run Necmettin Erbakan University in Anatolian Konya province.

A Jan. 4 social media post by academic Urartu Şeker brought the article to public attention. Şeker stated that such claims were “simply vulgar,” and that it was frightening to see such “trash ideas” published as an editorial article.

Bir Tıp Fakültesi öğretim üyesinin,MS hastalığının doğa üstü nedenleri vardır; MS hastaları Allah tarafından cezalandırıldıkları ya da sınava çekildikleri içim hastadırlar demesi en basit tabirle terbiyesizliktir! Bu çöp fikirlerini editöryal bir makale olarak basabilmesi ise… pic.twitter.com/B4HXjRAYSX
— Urartu Şeker (@uosseker) January 4, 2024

Other articles by Prof. Çaksen surfaced as the initial post gained traction. Among them were “The Sacrifice of Ismail by His Father Ibrahim (Alayhi As-Salam): An Example of Surrender for Today’s Children and Parents,” and “Hijab Protects Girls and Women from Sexual Harassment,” both published in the Journal of Pediatric Neurology.

Şeker noted in another post that the editor-in-chief of the journal completed his medical residency in the Faculty of Medicine of the Necmettin Erbakan University, coinciding with Çaksen’s second residency at the university.