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.”
2 comments:
I don't think that they're making excuses for failures but a lot of Muslims countries are afflicted with poverty and violence. In many countries basic human needs, need to be met before they can compete technologically.
Keeping that in mind, at a time in history where so many of our brothers and sisters are suffering throughout the world, would it be prudent for our focus to be science at this point?
That's a fair point, but I don't think you need to invest specifically in Science, but in education. People can improve their situation through innovation and hard work. India and Malaysia are two countries who have invested in education and are seeing the benefits economically.
I don't think it would be wise to depend on these Muslim countries to invest in basic infrastructure because we know its not gonna happen as there are just too many political factors.
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