The article talks about the relationship of Islam and science in three countries in the Middle East: Egypt, Tunisia, and Jordan. The Arab world has gone through many transitions, from socialism, nationalization, to a religious identity. The author attempts to associate scientific growth in the Arab world to the lack of piety among the citizens, often citing convenient examples and not exploring examples of success such as Malaysia, a strong Muslim government with a growing economy.
The biggest problem in the Arab world is the blame attributed towards the West rather than taking responsibility for their own actions. Muslim societies are close-minded, not open to new ideas, criticizing anything that resembles being "Western". In the article, the Egyptian scientist El-Najjer is quoted as saying:
“We are not behind because of Islam,” he says. “We are behind because of what the Americans and the British have done to us.”This type of thinking does nothing to help alleviate the suffering of the people and stunts growth by giving people excuses for their failures. Political instability and religion intolerance have been the key factors causing the lack of scientific growth within the Muslim world. The Muslim world was at one time the center of learning throughout the world, where many researchers would come and learn. However, many of the top people have migrated to countries with more educational support without people coming the other way.
The Arab/Muslim world needs to balance their religious views with science, allowing for innovation within the boundaries outlined in the Quran. Waheed Badawy, a chemistry professor at Cairo university summarizes this point nicely, he says:
Islam has no problems with science, Nobody can just write what he thinks without proof. (For example) But we have real proof that the story of Adam as the first man is true. It’s written in the Koran.”
