Science and
Technology Revival in the Muslim World
Introduction,
the Problem
It is no secret that Muslim-majority countries
have lagged behind much of the world in scientific and technological progress
for far too long. On average, they spend less than 0.5 per cent of their GDP
(gross domestic product) on research and development, compared with five times
that in developed economies. OIC countries account for just 2.4 per cent of
global research expenditure, 1.6 per cent of patents and 6 per cent of scientific
publications, despite holding nearly a quarter of the world’s population.
By any index, the Muslim world produces a disproportionately small
amount of scientific output and much of it relatively low in quality. In
numerical terms, forty-one predominantly Muslim countries with about 20 percent
of the world's total population generate less than 5 percent of its science.
This, for example, is the proportion of citations of articles published in
internationally circulating science journals. Other measures -- annual
expenditures on research and development, numbers of research scientists and
engineers -- confirm the disparity between populations and scientific research.
Whatever indicator one looks at, the status of
science in most Muslim countries is bleak. Just as evident is the fact that
this situation is not caused by an idiosyncratic relationship between science
and Islam, or between science and Muslims, as rational science flourished under
the Abbasid Caliphate during the 8th to 13th centuries
and Muslim scientists fare well in academic institutions around the world.
Several analyses have tried to explain the state of scientific progress in
Islamic societies, mostly focusing on traditional factors, such as inadequate
funding, brain drain, or shortcomings of the educational system. Others have
taken a historical perspective by contrasting the evolution of science in the
Muslim world with the path of Western science. However, these analyses failed
to account for the modest return on considerable investments in science that
some rich Muslim countries have made during the past years, or how countries
such as Japan, South Korea, or China successfully implemented “Western science”
without having gone through the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution. What
is still missing in this debate are the unique dynamics of how the interplay
between religion and politics during the 20th century created a
hostile environment to the general values of modernity in Islamic societies.
These dynamics have more to do with the
stagnation of science in Islamic societies than other factors, such as lack of
funding and scientific capacity.
The social, economic and security implications
of this are staggering. It means that the Muslim world is not investing enough
in the core scientific and technological tools to generate solutions for newly
emerging threats from climate change, water scarcity and food insecurity.
Several studies have also shown a link between the outbreak of conflict and how
climate change affects drought and food prices.
This situation leads to some hard questions: Is Islam an obstacle
to modern science? If not, how does one explain the huge gap in scientific
output between the Muslim world and the West or East Asia? And what must change
so that science can flourish in Muslim countries?
While Islam has yet to reconcile faith and reason, other factors
such as dictatorial regimes and unstable funding are more important obstacles
to science and technology's again flourishing in the Muslim world. Significant
progress, in other words, depends on changes in values and institutions -- no
small order.
The
Current Situation
In the aftermath of World War II, for the first time, a perceived
need for indigenous science and technology spread in the Muslim world. Such events
as the creation of Pakistan and the 1948 Arab-Israeli war made Muslims very
acutely aware of their deficiencies in science and technology. The attainment
of independence fostered a technological (but not a scientific) nationalism.
States took responsibility for managing technology as an instrument of national
power and made relatively ample resources available for technology (though,
again, not science).
More than sixty new universities and technical schools opened
during this period in the Arabic-speaking countries alone but none
of them has world-class standing. Science and engineering programs received the
most resources and so attracted the finest students; further, they have grown
to the point that hundreds of thousands of students now graduate annually in
the Muslim world. In addition, several hundred thousand Muslim students have
since the 1950s studied science and engineering in the West, the former Soviet
Union, India, and elsewhere, and a majority have returned home. Trouble is,
these results have been more impressive quantitatively than qualitatively.
The implementation of science and technology policy takes place at
the national, not regional, level. Most governments have established
councils to oversee science and technology, drafted some sort of national plan,
and made an attempt at implementation. National science policies vary widely.
Turkey has achieved the most research cooperation between the public and
private sectors, especially in hydrology, textiles, and agriculture. Egypt has
a cumbersome, centralized research bureaucracy and policy with little diffusion
or practical results. Pakistan pursues a comprehensive, government-directed
research effort with a priority for nuclear energy and other highly centralized
projects, but implementation has been slow and expensive. Malaysia has a
sophisticated applied-research policy focused on getting local private
investors to work together to expand the export of electronic items. Indonesia
has opted for a high-tech policy based on a national aerospace industry with
high-cost risks.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates have poured
vast amounts of money into science and technology. But the research output has
not matched the state-of-the-art facilities. The prevailing mentality continues
to be that of buying science and technology rather than producing it. Algeria,
Morocco, and Tunisia each operate its own modest version of French-style
centralized research policies but their lack of linkages to the private sector
or ability to diffuse results limits their productivity. Iran and Iraq
concentrate on petroleum and weapons research to the detriment of other
sectors. Other countries, such as the Sudan, Yemen, or the newly independent
Central Asian republics, lack a critical mass of researchers or have
experienced extensive emigration, or both. Political repression has crippled
science in Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria.
Fundamentalist governments in Iran and the Sudan have shown no
interest in developing a specifically Islamic science. Further,
the emigration of so many scientists and engineers from Iran after 1979,
coupled with the devastating effects of the war with Iraq, meant that the
authorities were most concerned with nurturing the remaining research
community. Indeed, the priority to reconstruct the war-damaged petroleum and
petrochemical industries has dictated generous treatment of scientists and
engineers. The science curriculum in the schools and universities has been
largely retained along pre-1979 lines. Iranian scientists have preserved
international contacts; even Abdus Salam, the Pakistan particle physicist and
the only Muslim Nobel Prize winner in science, has visited Iran.
The Sudan has experienced one of the most severe instances of
brain-drain anywhere in the world. It appears that a half-million Sudanese
technicians and professionals have emigrated, primarily to Saudi Arabia and the
Persian Gulf, since 1960. Scientists, engineers, and physicians have
left, primarily to the Persian Gulf countries. The military-fundamentalist junta
that came to power in 1989 has been concerned to slow down this exodus of
talent and to retrieve what remains of Sudanese scientific and technological
capabilities. Hasan at-Turabi, philosopher-theologian of the regime, envisions
a moral, democratic, Islamic state with ample room for research. The Sudanese
government, with its enormous internal problems, appears to have no interest in
attempting an Islamization of science.
Nor do fundamentalist movements in opposition aspire to Islamize
science. Movements in Algeria and Tunisia, for example, demand the replacement
of French with Arabic at all educational levels, but their objectives are
political and cultural rather than anti-scientific.
Only in Pakistan, due to internal political pressures and the particularly
influential role of the mullahs (clergy), have fundamentalists attempted to
impose a version of Islamic science. The government of Zia-ul-Haq in 1987
introduced fundamentalist doctrines in the teaching of science at all levels,
from primary schools to universities. The regime organized international
conferences and provided funding for research on such topics as the temperature
of hell and the chemical nature of jinns (demons). After
considerable damage had been done to science education, secularists
counterattacked and in 1988 won the right to teach and research modern science.
In spite of extensive publications and academic exchanges, Islamic science has
not taken hold outside of Pakistan, where its support appears to be on the
decline.
Islamic or Muslim seats of
civilization did demonstrate elements of “creativity” and “innovation”
centuries before the relatively recent scientific and technological revolution
and consequent dominant position of the West. During the second half of the
twentieth century there has been a general awakening in the developing
countries on the need for ‘catching up’ with the West with respect to Science
and Technology and removing the “road blocks” in the path of scientific
development. However, Muslim countries over the past centuries have not fared
well compared to others in their policies and plans for adoption of scientific
methods of inquiry, creation of a climate for innovation and adaptation of
modern technology.
The results shown
in the tables (Tables 1 and 2) below indicate that there are great disparities
between Muslim countries and technologically advanced countries of the
West.
Table 1: Human
Development and Technology Achievement Indices of some Muslim Countries
Country
|
HDI Ranking (2007-08)
|
TAI Ranking (2001)
[Only 72 countries were ranked]
|
Algeria
|
104
|
58
|
Bangladesh
|
140
|
NA
|
Egypt
|
112
|
57
|
Indonesia
|
107
|
60
|
Iran
|
94
|
50
|
Jordan
|
86
|
NA
|
Kuwait
|
33
|
NA
|
Lebanon
|
88
|
NA
|
Malaysia
|
63
|
30
|
Pakistan
|
136
|
65
|
Saudi
Arabia
|
61
|
NA
|
Syria
|
106
|
56
|
Tunisia
|
91
|
51
|
The “Spread”
|
(33-140)
|
(50-65)
|
Human Development and Technology Achievement Indices of some
Technologically Advanced Countries
Country
|
HDI Ranking (2007-08)
|
TAI Ranking (2001)
[Only 72 countries were ranked]
|
Australia
|
3
|
10
|
Belgium
|
17
|
14
|
Brazil
|
43
|
43
|
Canada
|
4
|
9
|
Croatia
|
47
|
31
|
Germany
|
22
|
11
|
Hong Kong
|
21
|
24
|
Israel
|
23
|
18
|
Japan
|
8
|
4
|
Korea(South)
|
26
|
5
|
Netherlands
|
9
|
6
|
UK
|
16
|
7
|
United
States
|
12
|
2
|
The “Spread”
|
(3-47)
|
(2-43)
|
The human development situation varies widely across the Muslim world. UNDP’s 2006 Human Development Report which examines human development across 177 countries,
shows a picture of sharp contrasts; human development in the Muslim world ranges from Niger and Mali,
which rank bottom at 177th and third from bottom at 175th respectively (both countries
are about 90% Muslim), to Kuwait and Brunei which are ranked 33rd and 34th from the top respectively—both
oil-producing countries, Kuwait, (the native population of which is almost exclusively Muslim) and Brunei (which is two thirds Muslim), just below Portugal and the Czech Republic. For the “Muslim world,” however defined,
the status of its human development ranges from the bottom of the HDI in Africa to just below the top tier in the oil-producing states.
The
harsh reality of the present day Muslim World is that despite being in
possession of enormous potential and immense resources, most of the countries
are at a lower level of development, barring a few exceptions, mostly the
natural-resources-rich countries.
However,
a major chunk of the global Muslim population continues to languish in abject
poverty. A sizable number of populace in Muslim countries, with large
populations, lives below the internationally defined poverty line; in some
cases, this ratio is as high as 60 and 70%
Population
below Poverty in Selected Muslim Countries
Country
|
Population
below Poverty Line
% of Total Population
|
Azerbaijan
|
49.6
|
Albania
|
22.6
|
Algeria
|
25.4
|
Bangladesh
|
43.2
|
Chad
|
63.0
|
Egypt
|
16.7
|
Indonesia
|
16.7
|
Mauritania
|
46.3
|
Pakistan
|
32.6
|
Sierra
Leone
|
70.2
|
Turkey
|
27.0
|
Source:
The PEW Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life, 2011
The OIC average of adult literacy rate, i.e. 70.2%, for the
period of 1999-2008 was approximately 10 percentage points lower than the world
average of 79.6%. For Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the figure was even
lower, with 56.6% and 54.4% . On average, 2.7% of the total GDP of the OIC
Member Countries was spent on public education in the period of 1999-2008,
which was less than the World average of 4%. As to the average health
expenditure from the total GDP of the OIC Member Countries, it stood at almost
half of the world average, in percentage.
Golden
Age
The Muslim experience
consists of a golden age in the tenth through thirteenth centuries, a
subsequent collapse, a modest rebirth in the nineteenth century, and a history
of frustration in the twentieth century. The deficiency in Muslim science and
technology is particularly intriguing given that Muslims were world leaders in
science and technology a millennium ago -- something that distinguishes them
from, say, the peoples of Latin America or sub-Saharan Africa.
The period 900-1200 A.D.
represents the approximate apogee of Muslim science, which flourished in
Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, and Cordoba, among other cities. Significant progress
was made in such areas as medicine, agronomy, botany, mathematics, chemistry,
and optics. As Muslims vied with Chinese for intellectual and scientific
leadership, Christian Europe lagged far behind both.3
This golden age was definitely Muslim in that it took place in
predominantly Muslim societies, but was it Islamic, that is, connected to the
religion of Islam. States were officially Islamic, and intellectual life took
place within a self-consciously Islamic environment. Ahmad al-Hassan and Donald
R. Hill, two historians of technology, see Islam as "the driving force
behind the Muslim scientific revolution when the Muslim state reached its
peak." But non-Muslims had a role in this effort, and much of
the era's scientific achievements took place in a tolerant and cosmopolitan
intellectual atmosphere quite independent of the religious authorities.
Muslim countries occupied a predominant leadership role in scientific
and technical innovation. The economic integration of the trading worlds of the
Mediterranean and Indian Oceans under a common language and culture stimulated
growth through both the larger market it generated and the exchange of
scientific and technical knowledge (Lal, 1999). This region probably
anticipated the expansion and influenced the expansion of Western Europe. In
spreading to Spain in the west to India and Southeast Asia in the east, these
countries unified much of Eurasia and Africa and took over and created the
first global system. Through this culture, albeit an Islamic one, the
technological achievements of China and India were diffused throughout Western
Europe.
During this period Arabs became heirs of the ancient civilizations of
western Asia and northern Africa. Baghdad in the ninth century was the scene of
intense intellectual activity. With the active inspiration of the kings
(Caliphs) a number of eminent scientists worked in the House of Wisdom (Baitul
Hikma) a kind of research institute for scientific and technological
innovation. They rend major Hellenistic works from Greek into Arabic. These
translations and those from Indian sources gave impetus for genesis and
development of new knowledge. In the course of the century original works were
written on mathematics, astronomy, physics and medicine. In the field of
technology they continued the innovative culture of their Persian predecessors
constructing and innovating large hydraulic systems, building water-raising
wheels and large mills for supplying the city with flour. In the case of more
delicate machines, a treatise written about 850 AD describes about 100
ingenious devices which display a mastery over sensitive control mechanisms that
remained unsurpassed until modern times (Hill, 1993, Nasr, 1976). However these
devices were of small "pilot scale" and were never scaled up to put
into general service for productivity increases in economic activities.
Possibly these were developed as intellectual challenges and not innovated to
meet industrial needs.
Scholars of these eras were the first to recognize importance of and
use of zero (borrowed from Indian sources), founded modern Algebra (by
Al-Khawarzimi) and made monumental strides in the practice and study of
medicine. Ibn Sina's (Avecinna) text the Canon of Medicine was used as a text
in Europe centuries later (Tarabishy, 2004). Scientific endeavors in this
region lasted for nearly six centuries and this, as George Sarton (Sarton, 1975)
observed, is longer than Greek, medieval Christian, or even modern science has
lasted. Karen Armstrong (Armstrong, 1991) writes “The Arabs were light to the …
West and yet this debt has rarely been fully acknowledged. As the great
translation work had been completed, scholars in Europe began to shrug off this
complicating and schizophrenic relationship… And became very vague indeed about
whom the Arabs really were…"
George
Sarton in his monumental work marks the time from the 2nd half of eighth
century to the 2nd half of the eleventh century into:
- The time of Jabir Ibn Haiyan which covers
the 2nd half of eighth century
- The time of Al-Khwarizmi which covers the
1st half of ninth century
- The time of Al-Razi which covers the 2nd
half of ninth century
- The time of Al-Mas'udi which covers the
1st half of tenth century
- The time of Abu-l-Wafa which covers the
2nd half of tenth century
- The time of Al-Biruni which covers the
1st half eleventh century
- The time of Omar Khyyam which covers the
2nd half of eleventh century
The Golden Age for Muslims as the leaders in science continued until
the 14th century. The highlight of this era was in the 10th and 11th centuries
when three great thinkers strode the East: Abu Ali al- Hasan ibn al-Haytham,
also known as Alhazen; Abu Rayham Muhammad al-Biruni; and Abu Ali al-Hussein
Ibn Sina, also known as Avicenna. Al-Haytham, born in Iraq in 965, experimented
with light and vision, laying the foundation for modern optics and for the
notion that science should be based on experiment as well as on philosophical
arguments. It has been suggested that al-Haytham “ranks with Archimedes, Kepler
and Newton as a great mathematical scientist”. The mathematician, astronomer
and geographer al-Biruni, born in what is now part of Uzbekistan in 973, wrote
some 146 works totaling 13,000 pages, including a vast sociological and
geographical study of India. Ibn Sina was a physician and philosopher born near
Bukhara, also now in Uzbekistan, in 981-1037. He wrote al-Qanun fi al-Tibb, or The Canons of Medicine, a million-word
medical encyclopedia, a seminal volume that was the first to recognize the
contagious nature of tuberculosis, to identify meningitis, and to describe all
the minute parts of the eye. By the 12th century, the Canons had been
translated into Latin, and European medicine relied on this text until well
into the 1700s. Thus, if it were not for these Islamic scholars, developments
in Western sciences may not have advanced as much as they had (Habibi, 2008).
Technology
Between 750 and 1100 AD, the Muslim world had
a number of impressive technological achievements to its credit, in addition to
being a more tolerant and cultured society (Singer, 1958). This included
development of “Lateen Sail” which allowed building of larger merchant ships.
In power technology, Muslims were the first to use a tidal mill in Basra around
1000 AD. Both wind mills and water power were used in sugar mills and saw
mills.
Muslims
were also responsible for the introduction of paper into the Middle East and
Europe. By 1000 AD the entire Islamic world was enjoying bound books. In
textile production, the Muslim world made substantial advances in fabric
quality. Most original contribution was in Chemical Technology. Al Jabir and Al
Razi wrote books which for centuries were recognized as standard works in the
field. They invented Alkalis and greatly improved the quality of glass and
ceramic products. They produced naptha and their perfumery and acid industries
were advanced for that age.
In
Mechanical Engineering, from water mills to clocks, the Muslims were for
centuries far ahead of the West. Al Jazari’s “Book of Knowledge of Ingenious
Mechanical Devices” has been recognized as the most remarkable engineering
document to have survived Pre-Renaissance times (Hill, 1993). They were masters
in the utilization and modification of hydraulic technology. Spread of
irrigation helped agricultural progress and between 700 and 1100 AD
“Agricultural Revolution” occurred in areas populated by Muslims (Mokyr,
1990).
Stagnation
and Decline in the Muslim World.
Things started to go awry
in the early thirteenth century, when the Muslim world began to stagnate and
Europeans surged ahead. Even revisionist historians who challenge this date as
the time that decline set in do accept that decline eventually took place.
Thus, Marshall Hodgson -- who argues that the eastern Muslim world flourished
until the sixteenth century, when "the Muslim people, taken collectively,
were at the peak of their power" -- acknowledges that by the end of the
eighteenth century, Muslims "were prostrate."5
Whatever its timing, this decline meant that Muslims failed to
learn from Europe. In Bernard Lewis's phrasing, "The Renaissance,
Reformation, even the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, passed
unnoticed in the Muslim World."Instead, Muslims relied on religious
minorities -- Armenians, Greeks, Jews -- as intermediaries; they served as
court physicians, translators, and in other key posts. With their aid, the
Muslim world accomplished what is now known as a limited transfer of science
and technology.
The deficiency in Muslim science and technology is particularly
intriguing given that Muslims were world leaders in science and technology a
millennium ago -- something that distinguishes them from, say, the peoples of
Latin America or sub-Saharan Africa (Segal, 1996). From the tenth through the
thirteenth centuries
Decline in science resulted from many factors, including the
erosion of large-scale agriculture and irrigation systems, the Mongol and other
Central Asian invasions, political instability, In my opinion some of the blame
is wrongly assigned to the great theologian Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali
(1059-1111) The Imam did protest but his protest was in fact related to the
fact that the best Muslim minds preferred to become theologians rather than
scientists. The Muslin society accorded a very high status to the theologian
than to the scientist. this in my opinion is perhaps one of the reasons that
science and technology stagnated The Mongols who sacked Bagdad did become Muslims
but they did not encourage science and technology and the Ottoman Empire chose to imports Jews and other non
Muslims to run the governments and ignored the scientific traditions of the Muslim
World from the near past.
The Mongols, after their conquest, converted to Islam but took an
ambivalent attitude towards knowledge accumulation. A section of religious
teachers of the time connived with the powers that be to remove secular
subjects from the school curricula. Scholars between the ninth and eleventh
centuries concluded that answers to all-important question were already available
and, thus, students needed only to learn existing knowledge. This approach to
education resulted in rote learning and a culturally inward focus, which served
to stifle creativity, and suppress technological innovation (Kuran, 1997). This
inward focus prevented the Middle Eastern countries from engaging in a
meaningful intellectual exploration of the technological transformation taking
place in Europe. Scholars of this region of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries were aware of the decline of their civilization but saw Europe's
advantage as consisting essentially of superior weaponry, failing to analyze
the deeper causes. Ottoman rulers, too, fearing corrupting influences from the
West, closed their cultures to exchanges with and diffusion from next door
Europe
The economic decline of the Middle Eastern countries relative to
Europe (given their geographical proximity) has been a continuing puzzle to
both scholars and reformers. The puzzle is confounded by the fact of their
earlier dominance alluded to in the section above (Ruttan, 2001). The first
wave of destruction of centers of learning and innovation came during Mongol
invasion of Middle Eastern heartland. Sack of Baghdad destroyed records of
achievements of scholars and scientists.
The reasons for Muslim decline have
been ascribed (wrongly as I have discussed elsewhere) to the works of Imam al-Ghazzali and later rulers (The
rulers who ignored science include the Mughal Empire in India and the Ottoman
Empire ( this seems to be a simplistic assumption as the Islamic Golden Age was traditionally believed to have ended in
the 14th century, but has been extended to the 15th and 16th centuries by recent
scholarship, which has demonstrated that scientific activity continued in the
Ottoman Empire in the west and in Persia and Mughal India in the east.) , which were great Muslim empires in the world in the late middle
ages with Safavid Iran, from the 16th century) especially the Ottomans and
their scholars. Through the promotion of a traditional religious attitude, the
Ottoman rulers considered science and philosophy as "un-Islamic
activities" that had to be stopped. On the political level, this attitude
was supported by a symbiotic relationship that existed between the rulers and
the religious scholars, the rulers supporting the ulama and the ulama supporting the rulers, as in several Muslim and Arab countries
today. The conservative Caliph Mutawakkil, in support of the orthodox party,
drove the first nail in the coffin of knowledge. Since then, Muslims went down;
today they became "the weakest" in science in the world, according to
a famous statement proffered by Abdus Salam.
Revival of science.
In combination, the
Enlightenment and French Revolution made European science accessible to the
Muslim world. The former detached science from Christianity, thereby making it
palatable to Muslims. The latter, and especially Napoleon's invasion of Egypt
in 1798, with its entourage of scholars and supplementary mission of knowledge,
imposed European power on and brought European science to a Muslim people.
Within years, some rulers -- led by Muhammad `Ali of Egypt -- recruited
European technicians and sent students to Europe.
Technology takes root. An extraordinarily rapid diffusion of
Western technologies throughout most of the Middle East took place in the
period 1850-1914. With the approval of local elites, European colonial
authorities imposed public-health measures to contain cholera, malaria, and
other contagious diseases.7The Suez Canal, opened in 1869, reduced
shipping time and distance and generated new trade. Railways, telegraphs,
steamships and steam engines, automobiles, and telephones all appeared. Much of
this technology transfer took the form of Middle Eastern governments' granting
monopoly concessions to European firms. Muslim rulers had little concern about
developing indigenous capabilities in technology adaptation, design, or
maintenance.
Science was an afterthought, at best embedded in scientific technologies
but not transferred explicitly as knowledge or method. Instead, members of
minority communities continued to intermediate by providing clerical and
skilled labor. Minorities also helped to establish the first Western education
institutions in the region, such as the Syrian Protestant College in Beirut
(founded in 1866) and the Jesuits' St. Joseph's College (founded in 1875).
These schools and others in Istanbul, Tunis, Tehran, Algiers, and elsewhere
primarily served minority communities and Europeans, though some elite Muslims
also attended. Middle Eastern medical schools quickly accepted and taught the
medical discoveries of Pasteur, Koch, and others concerning microbes and
bacteria. The schools contributed to the translation and publication in Arabic
of major scientific works and to the organization of the first scientific
societies in the region. Such societies were founded in Beirut, Cairo,
Damascus, and Istanbul in the late nineteenth century, often sponsoring
journals that featured translations. Thus, Charles Darwin's On the Origin of
Species, published in 1859, was translated in Arabic journals by 1876, though
not in book form until 1918. Throughout this period, Muslim intellectuals
presented minimal resistance to the diffusion of Western scientific ideas. For
example, the major opposition to Darwinian ideas of evolution came not from
Muslim scholars but from Eastern-rite Christians.8. In the 1914-45
period, Muslims slowly, and often in frustration, attempted to strengthen
indigenous science against the imported variety. New universities with an
emphasis on engineering and medicine sprang up in Egypt, Turkey, Syria, and the
Sudan. During the depression years, however, reduced employment for graduates
and increased discontent over the dominant role of expatriates and minorities
constrained science and technology.
The nationalist politicians who arose after World War I mainly
concentrated on gaining political independence; science and technology hardly
concerned them. The one exception was Turkey, which under Kemal Mustafa Atatürk
after 1922 launched an ambitious program of industrialization and an expansion
of engineering education. Elsewhere -- in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Iran --
politicians made only faltering attempts at industrialization to serve small
local markets. Turnkey, off-the-shelf projects prevailed, especially in
engineering; this meant that few scientific inputs existed, most technologies
were imported, maintenance was a persistent problem, and limited shop-floor
learning took place. Only in the petroleum industry, which after 1914 took on
major proportions in Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, did the pattern differ, for
multinational firms subcontracted locally such tasks as maintenance engineering
and geological surveying.
To illustrate the apathy towards the creation of sciences, which came
over the Muslim countries, Nobel Laureate Professor Abdus Salam quotes from Ibn
Khaldun (1332-1406 AD), one of the greatest social historians and one of the
brightest intellects of all times in his own field. Ibn Khaldun writes in his
Muqaddima:
“We have heard, of late, that
in the land of the Franks, and on the northern shores of the Mediterranean,
there is great cultivation of philosophical sciences. They are said to be
studied there again, and to be taught in numerous classes…….But it is clear
that the problems of physics are of no important for us in our religious
affairs. Therefore, we must leave them alone” (Salam, 1986). Such apathy must
have led the inevitable distrust of sciences as essential to intellectual
enrichment. Leading jurists in those times understood “ilm” (knowledge) as
referring to that knowledge which derives from the Prophet (PBUH). Everything
else are to be regarded either as useless or no science at all. Such beliefs
are still prevalent among the puritan clergy (Ulama) in Islam.
Anti-intellectual activities in the Middle Eastern countries were
started much earlier. Even though prevalence of an organized Clergy or
"Ordained Priests" is not legitimized by Islamic dogma, the religious
teachers and scholars (Ulama) were able to assume a similar role and received
legitimacy from general public. After the demise of the "rational"
period the "Ulama" were able to promote a slide towards acceptance of
a "tradition and compliance" regime from an earlier one which had
encouraged "innovation". Decline of science in Middle Eastern culture
was contemporaneous with the ascendancy of an ossified religiosity. The
rumblings against rational thinking and culture of science and technological
innovations were there and leading "Ulamas" worked tirelessly to rid
the culture of "foreign" intrusion of thought. Some of the leading
Islamic theologians of the Fourteenth century condemned study of mathematics
with vigor and without reservations because its precision and logical clarity
might lead to disbelief and contempt for religious edicts (Hoodbhoy, 2002).
Finally the "Golden Age" of Middle East ended in the 14th
century.
Unfortunately majority of Muslim theologians of today neither have the
necessary training nor the intellectual background to appreciate the methods of
scientific enquiry. Their intellectual universe is limited to medieval
theology. This medieval theology becomes their power and any one opposing may
be declared heretic. They have often endeavored to assume the power of
excommunication reminiscent of the Christian clergy in the medieval times.
The Muslim world has not systematically
debated the issue of the reconciliation of Islam with science and technology.
Few theologians are interested in dealing with this issue. Few scientists wish
to incur the wrath of the religious community by publicly raising it. In most
Muslim countries a tacit agreement therefore exists between scientists and
theologians not to debate issues that could harm both sides. However, the
religious leaders seldom speak against the tenets of science and scientific
doctrines and concepts are, fortunately, free from religious challenge. The
teachings of Darwin on evolution are taught in almost all Muslim countries.
Essential Ingredients of
a “Technology Culture”
Technology culture refers to an attitude of
individuals in a given cultural environ. The spirit of inquiry, the degree of
acceptance of the right to question and be questioned is to be considered
fundamental to the development of technological temper. It calls upon one to
seek the “hows”, “what” and “why” of everything that goes on in the society.
The existence of a technology culture is complementary to the initiative taken
by a country in the introduction of productive forces, which can lead to
technological development. A socio-economic entity may decide to develop the
“object embodied form” (i.e. the hardware) of technology based on its relevant
factor endowments existing at a given period of time. However, simultaneous
development of the other three “soft” components i.e., “human embodied form”,
“information embodied form” and “organization embodied form" of technology
constitute the more innovative and intellectual aspects and presupposes existence
of a technology culture in the country. For the sake of simplicity it is
assumed that such a culture exist in a well developed form in all leading
industrial countries and developing countries are currently at various stages
of acquiring it in a form complementary to their own societal ambience.
However, in this mission to develop a technology culture, they are also engaged
in the process of removing some “road blocks”. We discuss below some of those
“road blocks” or “negative elements” which probably are more significant than
others among the myriad of causes of uneven progress in embracing a technology
culture Muslim countries.
Traditional Value System and Orthodoxy
Distrust of new technologies is deeply rooted in most cultures with
old value systems because people in general are resistant to change. The fears
of changes that usually follow introduction of new technology; results from the
belief that these changes are likely to be adverse. New technology, be it the
product of local development, a transfer from abroad, or some combination of
the two, carries with it implicit behavioral changes which may not be consonant
with existing traditional values. Scientific and technological changes can
undercut systems of belief with behavioral implication far beyond those
necessary to carry on the scientific and technological endeavor. In our
discussion on these issues we shall look at some historical instances of
technological change and their relationships to other dimensions of culture and
try to discern some insights into the nature of the process and the range of
possible consequence. It will seem that there is always a fear in a society
steeped in orthodoxy (evident even in western cultures during earlier
centuries) that something important (e.g. cosmological belief, family values,
social equilibrium among classes, etc.) would be lost as a result of the new
technology (DeGregori, 1989).
This reality coincides with the conflict of belief between
conservative or puritan Muslims and the so-called Westernized Muslim scientists
who could separate out the science and religious. For example, some typical
comments from puritans include “Since all knowledge is in the Great Text, there
is no need to provide incentive to seek new frontiers of knowledge” and “It’s
destructive if we want to create a thinking person, someone who can analyze,
question and create” (Habibi, 2008).
Resignation
Sufi thought which was Islamized by Imam Ghazali in his famous work
related to the boundaries of Faith in
Islam , created dependence upon fate and
general inaction .Many people in these countries continue to view life as a
zero-sum game. They seem to believe that there is a limited pie of resources
and attempt to expand resources through some form of innovation is likely to
result in a smaller share of the pie for them. Increased productivity can
increase the pie for everyone, yet in many countries people have not made this
mental shift and are resigned to the older modes of production. People resigned
to the cultural perspective of life as a zero-sum game seem to resist learning
the lesson that exploiting areas of overlapping interests expands the pie for
everyone
Stratified
and Exclusive Societies
People may possess identical material and intellectual resources and
yet be treated as unequal because of social stigma or due to the denigration of
the world-view that informs their way of life and frames their identity
(Bhargava, 2004). Many Muslim countries still retain stratified social
structures that resist change. Such exclusive societies restrict social
mobility, which is considered fundamental in building a dynamic cultural
milieu. In some areas the colonial legacies and in others ancient
pseudo-religious practices and beliefs exacerbate their problem. Culturally
rigid social stratification in such exclusive societies artificially reduces
the availability of appropriate human resource for development. Meritocracy is
not encouraged and the excluded section of the society is resigned to the rule
of the established elite even when their members are mediocre. Thus, the urge
to excel is lost and the spirit of competitiveness is repressed.
A negative element in the culture of some Muslim countries that merits
serious attention is the exclusion of women from intellectual and social
intercourse. The exclusion of women from participation in cultural,
intellectual, economic and political spheres of activities was not ordained
during the Prophet's lifetime but was introduced through edicts handed down
afterwards by his followers to address certain social exigencies of those
times. Such injunctions appear to have continued over centuries to the
advantage and convenience of male dominated cultural milieu giving rise to
exclusive societies in these countries.
Highly Centralized Bureaucratic Decision-Making Systems
Almost all cultures in the world have been borrowers of technology
throughout history. A vast majority of the technology in a culture was, in all
probability, developed by others. Most innovations are borrowed from other
societies and improved upon. In fact, for several centuries there was a
continuous and fruitful (occasionally not so fruitful!) interchange of tools
and diffusion of ideas in the area that included South Asia on the east and
stretched to Europe in the West. Useful technologies spread, either through
migration of populations or by diffusion of techniques to neighboring
population both within and outside a given geo-political region (Cravens,
2003). The diffusion of technology is critical and often more important than
its invention, because most complex technological advances depend upon previous
mastery of basic problems. Thus technology develops in a cultural ambiance
which welcomes cross border diffusion and exchanges.
Most Islamic countries are economies based on natural
resources in contrast to developed economies based on industrialization, wealth
in a resource-based economy is distributed much more unequally and more
inefficiently. It goes to a small number of people at the top, and they're at
the top due to tribal, family, or political connections, not due to skill or
productivity. In a vibrant, competitive manufacturing economy, wealth tends to
accrue to innovators and efficient operators, and someone with a new idea or
better way of doing things has a chance to get to the top.
Unfortunately, however, in the countries under discussion there have
been periods when some ruling elites or powerful centralized bureaucracies
consciously opted out of the interchange and diffusion process thus stymieing
local innovation activities. Such isolationist policies can be adopted and
implemented only when a ruling elite or highly centralized bureaucracy in a
country exists and purposely opts for them. Such an option is often exercised
out of fear of “corrupting” influence of new technologies or due to complacency
resulting from a belief that answers to all-important questions is already
available. In general, centralized systems stifle innovation.
Most of the countries under discussion have highly centralized system
of government. Egypt, which probably invented centralized bureaucracy in
Pharaonic times, remains largely centralized today. Ottoman Empire was also run
as highly centralized bureaucracy. Ottoman rulers, fearing “corrupting”
cultural influences from the West, closed their society to exchanges with
Europe as the latter began to take off. This was one of the factors
contributing to the decline of technological innovations in the Ottoman Empire,
compared to the middle Ages, when the Islamic civilization led the world in
science and technology.
Islam and Science
Religion has played an important role in the economic and political
culture of the Middle East and other Muslim countries. Looking back, one finds
that the kind of Islam and the cultural roots that it formed in the Middle East
at the time of the Prophet (PBUH) was neither monolithic nor normative: it was
in constant flux as it was developing throughout the Prophet's career. Seeking
knowledge had been one of the more important injunctions of the Prophet (PBUH)
in a cultural milieu that hardly had any tradition of scientific inquiry at
that time. In one of his injunctions he
exhorts his followers "Seek knowledge even if you have to go to Cathay
(China)." It should be taken into consideration that in the sixth century
there were no adherents of the religion in China, however she was the foremost
center of scientific learning in those times. Since the beginning of Islam
there has been many different understandings of this religion each identified
by its historical time and locality, and with multiple contents, not always in
harmony with each other (Gutas, 2003). As posited earlier, cultural
developments in the Middle East have been significantly influenced by Islam
throughout history and these have impacted differently in encouraging or
discouraging scientific inquiry and technological innovations depending on
political exigencies and whose interest the religious leaders preferred to
promote. Therefore, in judging the influence of Islam on development of S&T
there is hardly any need to question whether it is for or against science and
technological innovation because throughout history religious arguments (in all
cultures) have been found for any position.
Western observers and “orientalists” more often than not ascribe the
apathy for S&T developments in Muslim countries today to Islam such an
impression are quite erroneous. The blame for the apparent backwardness of
Muslim countries in S&T does not and should not go to Islam per se as is
often propagated by many western observers. There is nothing in the Quran,
which discourages acquisition of knowledge and the Prophet also made
acquisition of knowledge obligatory for believers.
One of the most important Quranic commands is for individuals to seek
knowledge and read nature for signs of the Allah (SWT). Seven hundred and fifty
verses (almost one eighth of the Book) exhort believers to study nature, to
reflect, to listen, or to observe (for instance, see, sura 30, verses 21 to 24)
in their search for the ultimate. Also
see sura 41, verses 53-54, “Soon WE
will show them Our Signs in farthest regions of the earth and among their own
people until it becomes manifest to them that it is the truth. It is not enough
that thy Lord is Witness over all things? Aye, they are, surely, in doubt
concerning the meeting with their Lord; aye, HE, certainly, encompasses all
things”. Interestingly, there are only eight verses on Hajj (one of the
five pillars of Islam) and only six on fasting in the month of Ramadan (another
pillar). Whereas, there are several hundred verses on issues related to
sciences, natural phenomena, etc.
In the whole of Islamic history there has rarely been incident like
that of organized persecution by the Christian clergy of the great scientist
Galileo. Persecution, denunciation, excommunication do occur in Islam over
doctrinal differences, but never for scientific beliefs. Paradoxically, the
first inquisition (like that of medieval Catholic Church) came to be
instituted, not by orthodox theologians, but by the so-called “rationalists”,
the Mu’tazzila-theologians themselves who prided on the use of reason. The
great jurist Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal was one of the victims (Salam, 1986).
Some authors posit that what a particular society accomplishes in the
way of science wholly depends on who is using that religion or ideology and to
what ends. The analysis of scientific activity in Muslim countries, therefore,
should proceed only from the investigation of the social and political factors
at play in each particular time of history (Gutas, 2003). Gutas illustrates
this point succinctly thus: “In which
modern state of the Islamic world there is a research library of the caliber of
a major American or northern European university library, with open stacks and
borrowing privileges? It is instructive to compare this situation in the modern
Islamic world with that in the medieval, when there was a plethora of libraries
with holdings in all the arts and sciences, especially in Baghdad……The current
scientific backwardness of the Islamic world, just like its medieval
superiority, is thus clearly a political and social issue……Injecting the notion
of “Islam” into these discussions merely obfuscates the issue and confuses the
students, distracting them from historical analysis and political action.”
Efforts for Reformation
Several attempts were made during the 19th century for
"reformation" of the concept held by "Ulama" that
worthwhile knowledge acquisition ought to be restricted to religious knowledge.
However, political turmoil and wars for over a century in the region probably
prevented such revivalist initiatives to gel. We now briefly cite the important
messages from three of the leading reformists (quoted from “Islam and
Modernism”, Eagle Enterprises, 2003[internet]).
Jamal al-Din
al-Afghani (1839-1897),
the pioneer of pan-Islamism,was convinced that nothing but science and
technology could eliminate economic and cultural backwardness. Afghani objected
to dividing science into European and Muslim. He said modern science as
universal, transcending nations, cultures and religion. Afghani criticized the
Muslim scholars for not seeing it that way by saying: "The strangest thing
of all is that our Ulama these days have divided science into two parts. One
they call Muslim science, and one European science. Because of this they forbid
others to teach some of the useful sciences.” Afghani was indignant that
natural science was left out of the curriculum of Muslim educational
establishments. He said: “Those who imagine that they are saving religion by
imposing a ban on some sciences and knowledge are enemies of religion.”
Sheikh Mohammad Abduh (1849-1905), the Chief Mufti of Egypt argued that traditional Islam faced serious challenge by the modern,
rational and scientific thought. But he did not believe that the faith of Islam
in its pure and permanent core of norms clashed with science. Instead he
asserted that the faith and scientific reason operate at different levels. The
real Islam, he maintained: "had simple doctrinal structure: it consisted
of certain beliefs about the greatest questions of human life, and certain
general principles of human conduct. To enable us to reach these beliefs and
embody them in our lives both reason and revelation are essential. They neither
possess separate spheres nor conflict with each other in the same sphere…"
He was sincerely interested in eliminating the obstacles to the development of
science and technology essential for the revival of the Muslim peoples and for
economic and cultural progress. He wanted Muslims to use scientific
achievements without heed of the world outlook implicit in science.
Sir Sayyed Ahmad Khan (1817-1898), the pioneer of Indian Muslim
reform, basically subscribed to the same ideas of Islamic reform as Sheikh
Abduh. Both agreed to the point of necessity to harmonize Islam with modern
science and rationalism. Sir Sayyed, however, viewed revelation by the
criterion of its conformity to Nature. To him, Islam was the religion of most
akin to Nature. Reason and “conformity to Nature” according to Sir Sayyed was
the essence of Islam. His main argument was that the Quran was the word of God
and the nature was the work of God; a disparity between the two was
unthinkable. According to him, Wahy (revelation) and reason are identical. The
latter operates in man's scientific investigations as much as in his concept of
deity, his distinction between good and evil, his views on divine judgment and
retribution, and his belief in life after death.
Sir Doctor Muhammad
Iqbal (1877-1938 ) widely known as Allama Iqbal,
was a poet, philosopher and politician, as well as an academic, barrister and
scholar in British India who is
widely regarded as having inspired the Pakistan Movement. He is
called the "Spiritual Father of Pakistan. He is considered one of the most
important figures in literature,
with literary work in both Urdu and Persian.
Iqbal also wrote two books on the topic of The
Development of Metaphysics in Persia and The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam and many letters in the English language. Iqbal presented
the concept of revival of the instrument of Ijtehad and also the reconstruction
of the method such Ijtehad can or should be carried out.
The
Intellectual Response
Pervez Hoodbhoy, a Pakistani physicist and science policy writer,
identifies three broad Muslim responses to modern science. A small number of
fundamentalist Muslims reject science for the Muslim world, seeing it as
immoral and materialist; for example, a leader of the Muslim Brethren in Egypt
declares epidemics to be a form of divine punishment ("God developed the
microbe and kept it away from those He wished to spare") and argues
against scientific efforts to eradicate the problem.A larger number seek,
through suitable interpretations of the Qur'an, a reconciliation between
revealed truth and physical reality. A third, and perhaps predominant, faction
regards religion and faith and modern science as essentially unrelated. This
last viewpoint sustains the vague belief that Islam and science are not in
conflict, without ever closely examining the specifics.
Indeed, in keeping with this imprecise approach, it is striking to
note how the Muslim world has hardly debated the issue of the reconciliation of
Islam with science and technology. Few theologians are versed in science or
interested in dealing with this issue. Few scientists wish to incur the wrath
of the religious community by publicly raising it. Few institutional forums
exist for such a debate, and their dependence on the state further dampens
incentive. In most Muslim countries, including Iran, a tacit agreement
therefore exists between scientists and theologians not to debate issues that
could harm both sides. That Islamic leader seldom rail against the tenets of
science means that scientific doctrines and concepts are mostly free from
religious challenge. The teachings of Darwin on evolution, for example, are
allowed everywhere but Saudi Arabia
Seldom has the debate over reconciling Islam and science addressed
the Qur'an itself and the claims made for its infallibility. A work of exalted
and unadulterated monotheism, the Qur'an presents God as the Creator bringing
into being all material objects and all life. God's will is responsible for
earthquakes and other natural events; Nature is a oneness derived from Him.
Some scholars find in the Qur'an the prototype of environmental sciences, such
as ecology and biology. But finding "proto-science" in a holy book
dating from the seventh century A.D. raises all sorts of problems. One verse
(6:1) reads, "He created the heavens and the earth in six days,
and then mounted his throne." Were this verse, borrowed from Genesis I,
interpreted literally, it would devastate astrophysics, cosmology, geology, and
other disciplines. But Muslims have neither interpreted the verse (as have most
Christians and Jews) to understand that a "day" means some length of
time to God other than twenty-four earth hours, nor have they given it a
metaphorical meaning. For their part, Muslim geologists practice their
profession without trying to reconcile the Qur'an with the assumptions of their
profession.
Science is curiously missing from the passionate and ongoing
debate over Islam and the West. Religious extremists have attacked the social
order, corruption, and immorality, but not the minor heresies, of science. No
Islamic theological splits or fractures have occurred comparable to that
between evolutionists and Christian creationists. Instead, Islamic intellectual
history is characterized by loosely grouped individual thinkers attempting
single-handedly in their writings to achieve reconciliation. Technology
benefits from often unqualified approval.
Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-98), for example, devoted much of his
life to convincing Muslims in India "that western scientific thought was
not antithetical to Islam." He reinterpreted the Qur'an to find passages
consistent with reason and nature, and insisted that "Muslims have in the
Koran the source of a rational religion attuned to modern man's scientific
interests." In a bold approach, he stripped the Qur'an and the
hadith (anecdotes concerning the Prophet Muhammad) to render them compatible
with the science of his time. In perhaps the most influential modernist effort
vis-Ã -vis science, the Egyptian Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905) developed a belief
system based on reason. He argued that "religion must be accounted as a
friend to science, pushing man to investigate the secrets of existence,
summoning him to respect the established truths and to depend on them in his
moral life and conduct."21
Moving to the present, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, an Iranian Shi`i and
professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University, defines
contemporary Islamic science in terms of humanist values he finds in the Qur'an
and the hadith. Inspired by mystical ideals, Nasr articulates less a
practical program than a vague Islamic science free of nuclear energy and
devoted to environmental harmony. Similarly, Ziauddin Sardar, a Pakistani
science-policy specialist, envisions an "Islamic science" rooted in
humanistic values. He wants no weapons research (though it is hard to find
Islamic support for such a ban). He has written detailed proposals for networks
of Muslim scientists, joint projects, and regional cooperation, all based on
Muslim solidarity. Nasr and Sardar do not address the problems that
Islamic doctrine poses to science; nor do they admit the totality of science
(for instance, nuclear energy can be used for peaceful purposes). Also, they
fail to comprehend the universal, international, and open-ended nature of
science.
Abdus Salam is the Muslim world's foremost scientific secularist.
In an important collection of essays published in 1987, he insisted that
science is universal and international rather than Islamic. Adapting to Islam
the nineteenth-century Christian and Jewish reconciliation of faith and reason
as separate, complementary paths to knowledge, Salam maintains that "there
truly is no disconsonance between Islam and modern science." He
also asserts that "there is not a single verse in the Qur'an where natural
phenomena are described and which contradicts what we know for certain from our
discoveries in science." In spite of identifying the roots of science in
the Qur'an, Salam insists on separating faith and reason. He calls faith
"the timeless, spiritual message of Islam, on matters which physics is
silent, and will remain so." To flourish, science requires
autonomy, freedom to inquire, and assured resources, not the stifling embrace
of religion.
Pervez Hoodbhoy joined the ranks of militant secularists with his
1991 book Islam and Science, in which he appealed for tolerance to permit
reason and faith to coexist within each sphere. "While recognizing that
religion and science are complementary and not contradictory to each other, a
clear demarcation between the spheres of the spiritual and the worldly is
necessary." He also insisted that science is universal, not
Western.
Reasons
for Muslim World Underdevelopment
Islam contributes to the Muslim world's lagging behind in science
insofar as its tenets have not satisfactorily been reconciled with those of
science. Islam's most deleterious effect may be to remove most Muslims from direct
contact with science. Except for a brief exposure in school, there is little
science in Islamic popular culture. Scientists rarely turn up in the media.
Pleas by scientists like Abdus Salam to the religious authorities for sermons
about elements of science in the Qur'an and hadith go unheard. A modus vivendi
has been arrived at in several countries (for example, Morocco, Tunisia,
Jordan, Kuwait, Iran, Indonesia, and Malaysia) after informal, low-profile
discussions between clergy, academics, and scientists. This works on a
practical level without providing the intellectual context, sustained financial
commitment, or human resources needed for science again to flourish in the
Muslim world.
Islam is not, however, the key problem facing scientific achievement
in the Muslim world. Rather, the low level of achievement results from the
cumulative effect of multiple factors, and not from a single dominant cause.
Here are some ten of those factors:
Demographics . The number of research
scientists and engineers remains well below that of rich countries as well as
Latin America and South and East Asia. Science and engineering students are
drawn primarily from urban middle-income backgrounds; few of the much larger
number of poor students can pursue research careers. Participation by women in
science remains low, as the disincentives, formal and informal, for women to
study science or engineering are formidable. Only a handful of mostly urban,
middle-class male students have sufficient exposure to science to even consider
making it a career.
Language . With an estimated 80
percent of the world's scientific literature appearing first in English, the
literature in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, and other languages is inadequate for
teaching students as well as researchers. Scientific work, therefore, requires
a competence in reading, writing, and comprehending English, an area in which
Muslims overall lag behind other peoples, such as Chinese, Thais, and
Brazilians. Even though the Arab League has systematically promoted scientific
translations and an updated Arab vocabulary, Where English or French are the
language of instruction (the former in the Arabic-speaking countries of the
Persian Gulf, the latter in North Africa), hostility often develops between
students in science, who study in a foreign language, and those in other
disciplines, who work in Arabic.27
Education . Effective science
education at primary and secondary levels is available in many countries only
at a handful of urban private schools. There is too much rote learning, a
legacy in part of Qur'anic schools, and far too little support for science
education at all levels. Universities and technical schools emphasize teaching
rather than research. Few strong doctoral programs or research centers of
academic excellence exist. Overcrowded, underfunded, and turbulent universities
have been unable to protect space and resources for research.
Research . The Muslim world
suffers no shortage of scientists and engineers, but it does have an acute
scarcity of career researchers. While several countries boast outstanding
individual researchers and projects, there is little mentorship or in-house
ability to train young researchers. And many of the few science and engineering
graduates being trained in research are then employed in bureaucratic posts.
Inadequate equipment and access to data also reduces scientific output per
researcher, as do the few incentives to publish and the absence of quality
doctoral programs within the region. Attempts to develop research capabilities --
whether in universities, research institutes, government ministries, nonprofit
foundations, multinational corporations, or local corporations -- have rarely
succeeded.
State-owned corporations . Given the increasing
links between science and technology, state-owned corporations have a
potentially important role, especially in Algeria and Syria, but they have
woefully neglected science. Research by parastatals such as Sonatrach, the
state petroleum firm in Algeria, has been plagued by poor management, erratic
funding, political instability, and personnel problems. Lack of accountability
and inability to diffuse research -- even within the firm -- are persistent
problems. Unwilling to build linkages to university researchers or to
collaborate with admittedly weak government ministries, the parastatals have
wasted resources.
Industrial import substitution often continues to rely on turnkey
projects and foreign maintenance. There are signs, especially in Pakistan,
Turkey, and Lebanon, of local firms' developing adaptive research capabilities.
Multinational firms active in the region prefer to conduct research at European
or North American sites. Some adaptive research in the petroleum and
petrochemical industries, mostly small-scale quality control, provides few incentives
for joint ventures in research with state-owned companies. Except for Algeria,
Iran, and Iraq, state oil companies are more managers of concessions than
operators with strong technical capabilities.
Professional societies . Professional societies
of physicists, engineers, dentists, physicians, and other disciplines generally
sponsor journals and meetings but have no structures or resources for research.
Sometimes harassed politically (as in Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, and Iraq),
the professional societies often opt for the most narrow and technical concept
of their mission. Broad-based interdisciplinary professional societies for
science and engineering have been slow to develop in the Muslim world. The one
exception is the Royal Scientific Society of Jordan, which has monarchical
patronage and interdisciplinary participation.
Resources . A lack of financial
resources and incentives has been a major barrier to research except in some
oil-rich states. Whereas Japan, the United States, Germany, and other Western
countries spend 2 percent or more of their gross domestic product (GDP)
annually on research, no Muslim country spends more than .50 percent of its
(much lower) GDP on research. Not only is money scarce but what
little is available comes sporadically, further bedeviling long-term research
(which requires equally long-term financial commitments). Even where funds are
available, research-management capabilities are in short supply. The prospects
for stable research funding and effective institution-building are both poor.
Authoritarianism . Authoritarian regimes
deny freedom of inquiry or dissent, cripple professional societies, intimidate
universities, and limit contacts with the outside world. A horrific detailed
account by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences documents the long-term
destruction of the scientific community in Syria29 by a nationalist regime, not
a fundamentalist one. Authoritarian regimes also reinforce the prevailing
pattern of relying on technology transfer. Distrustful of their own elites and
institutions, the rulers prefer to buy rather than generate technology. The
oil-exporting countries especially see science and technology as commodities to
be purchased, an outlook that has a pernicious effect on the development of
indigenous research capabilities.
Regional cooperation . Regional cooperation
in science and technology has a checkered history in the Muslim world. It makes
eminent sense in principle, for a handful of countries (like Kuwait and Saudi
Arabia) are oil-rich and short of researchers, while other countries (Egypt and
Pakistan) export them. Also, the similarity of applied-research needs and
priorities, such as solar energy, desertification, and desalination, should
produce shared interests. Meetings held over two decades to coordinate regional
research have produced much rhetoric and little action.
Government incompetence . Applied-research
units in government ministries, such as agriculture or construction, have often
become sinecures for political appointees with little or no interest or
capabilities for research.
What relative importance do these factors have in terms of
impeding science in the Muslim world? The matter of reconciling faith and
reason would seem to be among the less consequential. The prevalence of
authoritarian regimes counts more. Also, while obscurantists reject science,
popular ignorance and indifference to science are far more problematic than
fundamentalist hostility. Lastly, science and technology research is not
adequately institutionalized: continuity of funding and personnel, long-term
goals, and management autonomy are all lacking.
Economic
liberalization
In the West, the advancement of science was
a slow process associated with a shift in religious dogma from being the
central pillar of society to a domain mostly concerned with individuals'
spiritual well‐being. Within that
complex and often bloody history, important milestones emerged: the Protestant
Reformation, the advance of empirical science, and the rise of industrial capitalism.
The Protestant Reformation provided an alternative moral basis centered on
economic activity, compared to the self‐purification ethics of
Catholicism, while the economic wealth created by the Industrial Revolution
during the 18th and 19thcenturies made European cities,
with their emerging bourgeoisie and diverse socio‐economic makeup, the
epicenter of the European renaissance. The Western path to modernity was thus
paved by liberalism and capitalism, for which science provided a universal
catalyst.
The course of science in the Islamic world was different. After
Islam's initial stage of expansion and conquest, the vastness and riches of the
Abbasid Caliphate during the 8th to 13th centuries
created optimal conditions for the arts and science to flourish. Moreover, the
focus of Abbasids on trade rather than conquest was perhaps a major factor in
seeding the diverse and tolerant society that prevailed during that period.
Coupled with a fundamental focus of Islam on learning and the patronage of
knowledge hubs, the Abbasids ushered in a rational path to knowledge influenced
by Greek philosophy. Thinkers from all creeds and backgrounds mingled in the
major Islamic centers of Baghdad, Damascus, and Cordoba to translate the body
of Greek knowledge and to search for answers to natural phenomena that were
based on reason and observation. As divisions and changing alliances began to
erode the house of Abbasids, their knowledge quest came under attack by
conservative scholars, who propagated an interpretation of Islam that denounced
philosophy, reason, and any causal framework that was not derived from divine
will. The calamitous fall of Baghdad to the Mongols in 1258 marked the end of
the “Golden Age” of Islamic Caliphate and the rise of conservative schools of thought
that continue to dominate the Muslim world until today.
One of the main messages of this historical
synopsis is that Islamic societies have yet to muster a class similar to the
European industrial bourgeoisie: entrepreneurs who have an economic stake in
modernization and the power to champion it. This is due in part to the fact
that the richest Muslim societies are natural resources economies that lack
real market dynamics, which can drive innovation and competition. Moreover, the
concentration of power and resources in the hands of ruling elites, and lack of
tolerance to opposition in most Islamic societies hindered free economic
enterprise and civic activism that could have challenged the status quo. As a result,
scientific institutions in the Muslim world could not develop into independent
hubs of knowledge through free association with diverse societal ventures and
economic interests, and continue to be dependent on political patronage and
subject to political interference.
Generally speaking, Islam differs from
Christianity in that it does not distinguish between the political and the
religious, and provides a complete system within which all aspects of life
submit to the service of religion. The prophet Mohammed, after all, belonged to
the socio‐political order of tribal Arabia, and thus had direct claim to
dominion—the new religion provided the legitimacy for his ascent to power. This
made religion's involvement in all aspects of life germane to the culture of
Islamic societies, a situation that has been exploited by different fractions
at different times to suppress any “unwarranted democratic” trends.
Increasingly, most Islamic societies became rife with taboos and codes, where
the cultural, religious, and political mix and match according to the context
to quell any attempts at breaking out of these taboos.
From the science perspective, a general look at the scientific
landscape of most Islamic societies reveals a striking absence of social and
political sciences, and the absence of critical research topics, such as sexual
and reproductive health. When these topics are researched, it is usually done
at the descriptive level without any attempt to probe into their underlying
social, economic, and political roots. For example, women's obesity levels in
many Islamic societies are among the highest in the world, yet no serious
research is being done to get at the root of this problem in terms of power
relations, gender roles, and the normative values of these societies.
Far from being a formal inquisition, incidents such as the
targeting and imprisonment of secular reformists in different Islamic societies
have had a ripple effect throughout the Islamic world. The glorious days of
Islam, in contrast, reveal an extraordinary level of tolerance by today's
standards. I can cite the example of Abul Ala Al‐Ma'arri (973–1057), the
renowned Muslim philosopher and poet and an outspoken critic of religion.
Despite his highly controversial views, Abul Ala lived in his hometown Ma'arra
(Syria) as a venerated figure until his death at the age of 84. Below are few
of Abul Ala's translated verses criticizing religion and affirming his outright
rejection of it.
What is religion? A maid kept close that no eye may view her;
The price of her wedding gifts and dowry baffles the wooer.
Of all the goodly doctrine that I from the pulpit heard.
My heart has never accepted so much as a single word.
Eleven centuries later, in 2011, a Muslim
zealot killed Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab province, for merely
advocating the amendment of Pakistan's harsh blasphemy laws. His murder was
celebrated by many Muslims in his country and beyond .
Science of the
Infidels
The scientific revolution was at its core a
Western development and, for many Muslims, also a Christian one. This belief
created negative connotations in the popular perception of science and
modernity among Muslims, which was further enforced by the continued failure of
the Western‐dominated post‐WWII political system to
deliver anything but mayhem to many in the Muslim world. These sentiments have
been channeled outwards in the form of disdain for the West and its values, and
inwards in the call to return to Islamic roots. They were further
conceptualized into a bipolar perception of the world: technologically
conquered by the material west, and morally conquered by spiritual Muslims.
Accordingly, any attempts to expose problems with the assumed moral stronghold
of Islam, such as the debate about women's rights, are viewed as a Western
conspiracy against Islam .. As a result, anti‐Western rhetoric became
an essential component of most Islamist movements, and, by default, devalued
the Western system of liberal democracy and its institutions, including
science.
Antagonism to science can be overcome by
promoting the value of free exchange of ideas and the role of scientific
evidence in guiding development. Yet, most educational systems in the Middle
East focus on rote and sterile learning, and often serve as propaganda outlets
for the political regimes. The scientific revolution, for example, is often
framed within an imperial context, and stripped of its liberal and free market
roots. Science's inconvenient roots moreover are dealt with by turning it from
a process to a commodity that can be purchased “purified” from its historical
origins, or the moral values of its producer . This allows consumers to
selectively choose or reject “products”, such as evolution, the origins of
life, and free market economics, based on religious rather than scientific
justifications. This did not only prevent Islamic societies from learning from
the Western experience, but also created a religious buffer from modernity. For
this buffer to work, the sanctity of religion needs to take precedence over the
welfare of its holders, a fact that is tragically translated nowadays into
Muslim‐on‐Muslim violence.
The reasons that lie behind the decline of
Islamic science, and the reasons that still prevent the Muslims today
from developing a community that can thrive in science, as it did in the Golden
Age of Islam can be summarized as follows:
Social attitude ;the nature of the state; Higher education; collegiality
and dissemination ; funding support for science; and Inadequate Islamic Law.
Recommendations
After nearly fifty years of would-be institution-building, the
Muslim world has failed to provide a satisfactory home for science. The failure
to build viable research institutions at the national level has thwarted most
attempts at regional cooperation. Talented researchers must still leave the
region to obtain advanced postgraduate training.
In spite of this pessimistic assessment, measures do exist to
improve Muslim achievements in the sciences. Fiscal and other incentives can
promote shop-floor learning and informal research, especially in locally owned
enterprises. Professional societies can, given sufficient autonomy, play an
important role in improving science education, scientific communications, and
the place of science in popular culture. Small-scale projects can establish
links between the public and private sectors and universities and technical
schools. The basis exists for fostering regional and subregional cooperation,
for there is a consensus on research priorities in much of the Muslim world.
These include solar energy, desalination, arid lands agriculture, irrigation,
animal sciences, and petrochemicals. While these are applied-research and demonstration-and-development
priorities, they do involve a substantial amount of science. With agreement on
priorities, long-term funding can be developed.
Yet, these incremental and pragmatic measures must still confront
a hostile environment. For science again to flourish in Muslim countries
requires recognition that it requires long-term continuities, the lessening of
authoritarianism, and a serious effort to reconcile faith and reason.
Most Arab countries in the Middle East, the
heart of the Muslim world, came to be as a result of the collapse of the last
“formal” Islamic Caliphate of the Ottoman Empire in 1922 and the short period
of colonialism that followed. After centuries of Ottoman (Muslim Turks) rule
that witnessed most of the decline of Islamic civilization, Arabs coalesced
around a strong nationalistic drive that dominated the post‐WWI era. As a result, the major Arab
states emerging after WWII were ruled by Nationalists—the Baath party in Iraq and
Syria or Nasserism in Egypt—that brought some stability during a turbulent
period, but failed to deliver socially, politically, and economically. In
addition, conflicts within the Arab Nationalist movement began to accelerate
after the defeat in the 1967 Arab–Israeli War. This war was a pivotal moment in
the history of Middle East that shattered the last shred of “legitimacy” of
Arab Nationalism and their quasi‐secular model. Discontent started brewing in many Arab societies,
and the Egyptian
Muslim Brotherhood's cry “Islam is the solution” started to echo throughout the
Middle East. It meant in ideological terms that Islam must become again the
source of all political, economic, legal, and social transactions in Muslim
societies, in order to return to the “glorious days” of Islamic civilization.
It also undermined allegiance to existing political structures for the sake of
a poorly defined, in political terms, “Nation of Islam”.
As the cradle of Islam, and the richest country in the region,
people started looking to Saudi Arabia for guidance during this period. This
coincided with Saudi's own concerns about the threat that pan‐Arabism (and its secular model) posed to their Islamic rule. Soon,
the wheels of Islamization of Arab societies were set in motion. From shielding
Islamists fleeing their “secular” regimes to financing religious ventures such
as mosques, schools, groups, TV channels, and popular preachers all over the
region, the Saudis did not miss the opportunity to become the epicenter of the
Sunni Muslim world. This was timely, also to confront the increasingly
expansionist Shiite theocracy of Iran that came to power after the Islamic
revolution in 1979. Both countries came at odds in a new round of rivalry
between Sunnis and Shiites dating back to Islam's original schism 14 centuries
ago.
Sensing the threat of Islamization, Arab rulers began a race
toward social “piety” through power alliances with the clergy that gave them an
expanded influence in all aspects of societal interactions. During the 1980s
and 1990s, religious schools, media programs, elaborate public celebrations of
religious holidays, and the crackdown on “unethical” and “Western” lifestyles
became commonplace in most societies in the Middle East. In fact, both Islamic
and Nationalist rulers in the region saw social Islamization as a strategy to
absorb the discontent of the rising Islamic tide, without having to give away
power or undergo any substantial political reforms.
The problem with this strategy, however, is
that it encouraged religious hypocrisy and curtailed individual freedoms and
civic activism. More importantly, social Islamization started a race to the
bottom, where discontented members of already “Islamized” societies were left
with only one option: to offer more extreme platforms. This explains why
increasingly conservative societies in the Middle East kept generating more
radical movements throughout recent decades. With the power of the Internet and
social media, these radical views were carried to every corner of the globe,
transforming their context from local to global, and signaling the arrival of
global Jihadi Islam.
Without any illusions about the remote
prospect of Western‐style democracy becoming
a reality for most Muslim countries, the described dynamics underscore the lack
of real champions or an environment that could nurture science and usher in
modernity in most Islamic societies. Large sectors of these societies are not
only disenchanted with science, but denounce any value of modernity beyond
technological consumerism. Nurtured initially by their own governments, this
attitude gradually became a self‐sustaining current that
made change difficult by creating a contradiction between the values of
modernity and those of Islamic societies. It also hijacked the modernization
discourse in Islamic societies into a reactive mode in response to the
“invasion” of Western values, rather than an internally needed debate about the
welfare of Muslims.
Many societies throughout history, including the European nations,
have started from this point of antagonism between prevailing values and those
of science and modernity. Muslims, as far as history is concerned, need not
borrow any foreign system to modernize, for they can find all the ingredients
they need in their own “Golden Age”; tolerance, rationalism, and economic
activity for the pursuit of peace and prosperity. In the end, Muslims are not
different from anybody else in their yearning for a prosperous future for their
children and themselves, but they are trapped in an identity crisis based on
false contradictions. The recent election of a liberal government in Tunisia
and the economic success of Turkey's free market system show that, given the
choice, Muslims can dissociate elements of their cultural identity from how
they want to be governed and develop.
The modernization of Islamic societies is
not primarily about investment in science, increasing research capacity, or
acquiring top equipment and scientists, as it is usually suggested. It is more
about social and economic liberalization that can provide a natural driver for
innovation and competition. In essence, traditional societies' political hold
on the economy and the pandering to an assumed religious sensitivity need to
give way to a wider involvement of the moderate majority in shaping the
modernity discourse in Islamic societies. There is an opening now, given that
even the most “pious” regimes in the Muslim world understand that they cannot control
the extremism monster they helped to create with the usual manipulation‐and‐exploitation game. The
way to modernization, therefore, is not only in keeping with core Islamic
values of tolerance, sanctity of life, and the virtues of knowledge seeking,
but it is the best bet for promoting peace and progress in Muslim societies.
Otherwise, the tides of refugees that we are witnessing today, the rising
extremism on all sides, and the mushrooming of terror groups are likely to be
the opening salvo of a global, never‐ending conflict.
Since the later half of the last century the products of scientific
research and technological innovation have given rise to a “knowledge society”.
According to Peter Drucker, “The emerging (knowledge) society is the first society
in which ordinary people — and that means most people—do not earn their bread
by the sweat of their brow” (Drucker, 1968). Presumably he was referring to
“knowledge workers” and “Intellectual Entrepreneurs” exploiting the benefits of
advances in S&T in the industrialized nations. Given the knowledge
"explosion" that is taking place in this century it is pertinent to
note “it took from the time of Christ to the mid eighteenth century for
knowledge to double. It doubled again 150 years later and then again in only 50
years. Today it doubles every 4 or 5 years. More new information has been
produced in the last 30 years than in the previous 5000 years” (Linowes, 1990).
The above quotes clearly establish the compelling reasons for a
massive shift towards cultivation of S&T in Muslim countries. The response
of a majority of countries to the need for S&T modernization has been to
import technology to meet the knowledge gap. Plans for education reforms often
converge on proposals to import computers, involve foreign experts/consultants
(encouraged by donors), fund health care diagnostic laboratories etc. We do not
deny that some of these are necessary technologies (mostly in the form of
hardware).
However, creating an environment that inspires local talent to
innovate requires additional efforts in terms of openness to cross-border
exchange and diffusion of scientific ideas, exchange of faculty and students,
creating atmosphere for intramural dialogue and cross-sectoral debate, and the conscious promotion of questioning minds and
creativity in the curricula at every level. Such determined and purposeful
initiatives are evident only in a few Muslim countries. What is absent is a
system of tertiary education that can play the key role in generating and
applying knowledge in this network age that can help produce world standard
S&T and narrow the ever widening knowledge gap (Sharif, 2004).
Commitments to education in general and tertiary sector in particular
are substantial and the fraction of tertiary students in S&T subjects is
considerable in some Muslim countries. Yet their achievements in terms of
scientific discoveries and technological innovations (e.g. patents and payments
received from royalties) have been minimal. It is possible that the effort to give
a boost to S&T development has been made only recently and one has to give
time for the gestation period. However one is wary of the prevailing mind-set
and the manner in which science and engineering are being taught. One would
like to be assured that the curricula have been designed to test the creativity
of the young mind which can help him or her to develop a questioning mind.
It is imperative that the countries take initiatives for shedding
bureaucratic and cultural hangovers of the past. This is possible if
enlightened leadership is provided from the top and courageous initiatives
taken to counter obscurantism. The Muslim countries have to concentrate its
investment in human resources and purposefully encourage questioning minds to
extend the frontiers of knowledge.
Historically,
there was no conflict between scientific inquiry, the free and open exploration
and expression of ideas, and genuine Islamic teachings. That is precisely why
science flourished under past Islamic civilizations, and why fields of science
like astronomy, agriculture, medicine, horticulture, oceanography, physics,
mathematics and chemistry were revolutionized or pioneered by Muslims.
It is also why it is so fitting that member
states adopted the Astana Declaration, which calls on “all Muslim world countries to strengthen
the culture of education and science, especially for youth and women as a means
of enhancing social and economic modernization and socio-economic progress.” Rather than seeing science as an alien doctrine that
threatens Islamic traditions, the Islamic world must re-orient its perspective
by reclaiming its role in science.
Update: Feb., 10, 2019:
The Problem
Some 57 Muslim countries in the world are
home to more than 25 per cent of the population. Most of these nations are
confronted with problems such as poverty, war, unrest and political instability
However, the countries in Gulf and United Arab Emirates are rich in resources
and are self-sufficient. Despite the varied spectrum, one factor is common in
all of these states – they lag far behind in science, technology, new patents
and innovations as compared to other developed nations. .
Only three scientists from OIC namely Dr
Abdus Salam from Pakistan (Physics 1979), Prof Ahmed Zewail from Egypt
(Chemistry 1999) and Aziz Sancar from Turkey (Chemistry 2015) received Nobel
Prizes in their respective fields. All of them did their award winning work
outside their home countries. The Muslim world produces only six per cent of the
global academic publications, 1.6 per cent of the world’s patents and shares
2.4 per cent of global research expenditures. Muslim countries on an average
invest 0.5 of their GDP in research and development program.
Reasons
US intervention in Iraq and Arab Springs has
resulted than Muslims were struggling for everyday utilities as war after war
had badly disturbed every aspect of their lives. The US-led invasion of Iraq
not only destroyed dozens of universities and science institutes but also
targeted hundreds of top scientists. Baghdad University geologist and head of
Association of University Lecturers Al-Rawi archived that around 300 academics
and university administrators have been assassinated since the US occupation of
Iraq that began in 2003.
Almost all scholars agreed that lack of
political will in acquiring higher education and conducting research was
another problem in majority of the Muslim states.
Karachi University director of International
Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences Dr Muhammad Iqbal Choudhary said
the leaders have failed to understand that progress without science and technology
is not possible in the ever changing world. “I would state three problems:
First is the lack of understanding and political will. Secondly, our own issues
and problems kept busy in the civil wars and political unrest. The third is our
failure to unite as Muslim Ummah or our inability to create a Pan-Islamic
movement for science and technology,” he added. There was no luxury of science amid war and
insecurity. Low capacity and teaching
instead of research were three main problems of higher education in the
Palestine. .“In general, from Palestine, only those research publications are
high ranking if they are jointly produced with at least one or two western
scholars,” he added. Sahar Mostafa of Mansoura University in Egypt reiterated
that majority of Egyptian scientists are not concerned with research and
development. They only focus on their own promotions by writing papers which is
a waste of time and resources.
Solutions
Pakistani scientist Dr Muhammad Iqbal
Choudhary stressed upon the need of virtual network of scholars from Islamic
countries. “Instead of waiting for the political leadership, I think it is
important that the scientists from
chemistry, medicine, social science and other disciplines should create a
web-based network to achieve the common goals,” he said. Eminent Malaysian
chemist Prof Dr Dato Ibrahim Jantan maintained that science is controlled by
the west. A strong leadership is required to bring the Muslim scholars
together.
