POOR PERFORMANCE OF MUSLIMS

In recognising the top 50 scientific breakthroughs of 2007, Scientific American cites advancements in alternative fuels, treatment of Parkinson’s disease and technology that would make consumer electronics easier to use. Among those honoured are researchers in Japan, Italy and the Netherlands, a country with a population of just 16-million. Yet the list does not include a single noteworthy breakthrough in any of the world’s 56 Muslim nations, encompassing more than 1-billion people. Muslim countries contribute less than 2 per cent of the world’s scientific literature. In countries with substantial Muslim populations, the average number of scientists, engineers and technicians per 1,000 people is 8.5 per cent. The world average is 40. Muslim countries get so few patents that they don’t even register on a bar graph in comparison with other countries. Of the more than 3-million foreign inventions patented in the United States between 1977 and 2004, only 1,500 were developed in Muslim nations. In a survey by the Times of London, just two Muslim universities – both in cosmopolitan Malaysia – ranked among the top 200 universities worldwide. But it is a far cry from Islam’s early days when Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be with him) said, “The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of martyrs.” Up to 13th century C.E. there were major advances in mathematics, optics, chemistry, astronomy and medicine while Europe slept through centuries of intellectual darkness. A moot question is why the present scenario is so dismal?