An Interesting view about "Science" in the Muslim World

Where are the Muslim scientists?
By Dr Muzaffar Iqbal
The News, December 8, 2006

Modern science and technologies invented through the use of modern science are the only products of the Western civilisation which have gained widespread and unquestioned reception across the Muslim world. In fact, they are admired and coveted by all -- from military generals to the most conservative Mulla who would otherwise shun everything Western. This almost universal infatuation with science and technology has filtered down to the masses. One only has to mention that such and such a study, result, prescription, or statement is "scientific" and all barriers drop; everyone readily accepts it.

This remarkable conquering of the hearts and minds has been accomplished by modern science through its rapid utilisation in technologies which mass produce consumer goods, transport millions of people around the globe and let them communicate with their dear ones living thousands of miles away. A man living in a remote village in Pakistan's interior Sindh, who knows nothing about the Western civilisation, but who has a cell phone which allows him to talk to his son in Dubai, is not only using that hand-held little device; he is simultaneously surrendering to this "marvel" of the modern technology, which he knows comes to him from the West by way of China.

This impact of science and technology on the Muslim mind is not new; it is now almost two hundred years old, but it has gained new force in recent decades through the so-called digital revolution. During the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, Muslims were rather reluctant to adopt new technologies. From printing presses to mechanised farming and from pharmaceutical plants to transportation, Muslims resisted modern technology at various levels, only to turnaround in the middle of the twentieth century with an insatiable hunger for it. What seemed to be an impossible battle cry in the nineteenth century is now an automatic process; no one resists new technological products, no one questions their utility or relevance. This turnaround has been due to the sheer force of technology itself -- everyone can see the benefits of tractors, eye glasses, printing presses, photocopiers, and fax machines.

One result of this success of technology in winning hearts and minds is a resounding cry for science and more science, with no one willing to make any distinction between science and its applications in the form of technologies which produce consumer goods. Since science is inalienably linked with Western education, those clamoring for it automatically advocate Western-style education. They see little worthy in the traditional Islamic education which, according to many half-literate military generals, produces nothing but half-literate Mullas. Thus, what was a hard sell for the nineteenth century reformers is now a hot sell across the Muslim world.

As a result of this demand for science a frantic race has begun. From Iran to Pakistan and from Saudi Arabia to Morocco, all Muslim governments are now obsessed with increasing the number of PhDs they are producing. Ministers and advisors are counting the number of so-called research papers which have been published, and in this dizzying rush, there is no concern for quality. No one is interested in asking basic questions about the relevance of what is being done. To be sure, this blind race is not going to produce science, merely its caricature.

Science and scientists do not arise in isolation of the general conditions of a society. Any government can construct a building like the MIT anywhere in its territory, even import all the instruments present in that hub of modern science, but it will not produce science, for production of science is a process built upon a series of interconnected social, political, economic, and cultural parameters. Without the presence of all those factors, one can only erect buildings and install instruments as many Muslim governments have done.

What will produce scientists, who are able to make significant contributions at the forefront of various disciplines, is not something that money can buy; it is not an overnight turn-key operation; it is a process which can only be initiated by critical and capable minds at various levels of decision making, not rhetorical mouths thoughtlessly regurgitating statements of the kind now in vogue: the Muslim world needs to invest more in science; we only invest less than .1% of our GDP into science; we only produce such and such percentage of scientific papers in the world. These are meaningless statements, for they do not situate production of science in the real-life context of Muslim societies.

Viewed scientifically, that is to say, without the involvement of emotions and egos, one can state that currently there are no scientists in the Muslim world; only technicians aimlessly reproducing their PhD thesis ad nauseam and bureaucrat-technicians thoughtlessly demanding more and more money for science. Further, it can be deduced from the present social, economic, political, and cultural conditions of the Muslim world that no Muslim scientists will emerge in this polity until its current infatuation with science goes away and a more mature understanding of the enterprise of science emerges. Science does not grow on trees, it cannot be implanted by money alone, it cannot be franchised, and it is a process integrally linked with the overall state of the society, not a fruit that grows on some island.

The writer is a freelance columnist. Email: quantumnotes@gmail.com