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An important question is why is modern Muslim science so weak. A Muslim reader tells, "Quite simply put it = we have abandoned Islam. This is what I have been trying to explain in all those previous hundred emails, but somehow or the other the point just doesnt come across to you! This is from where i raised the issue of man-made laws vs. shariah laws." So the reason is departure from Islam. To us this raises a variety of questions. There seem to be other logical answers other than not enough Islam, namely too much Islam. But there are other questiins here, especially if departure from Islan is what has weakened Muslim science, shouldn't science in the West even be weaker since the West is further from Islam than any Muslim country.
A Muslim reader strongly objected to our assessment of modern Muslim science. He writes, "
how many more times do i have to tell you that there is no Islamic Civilization today which enforces the Shariah Law beyond 05% in toto? How many more times do i have to tell you that you need to judge a car by putting an expert driver behind the wheels who is not only aware of the all its features but also know how to use and show them to us in his driving most effectively? Your question:
"The question I am wrestling with is, how could a society that produced such intelectual brilliance in the medieval era become such an intelectual backwater in the modern world?" Quite simply put it = we have abandoned Islam. This is what I have been trying to explain in all those previous hundred emails, but somehow or the other the point just doesnt come across to you! This is from where i raised the issue of man-made laws vs. shariah laws. You have yourself agreed for the umpteenth time that indeed the Islamic Civilization produced 'intellectual brilliance in the medieval era' which YOUR WESTERN intellectuals call as the 'Golden Era of the HUMANITY!' [HBC note: We know of no important historian (ouutside the Muslim world) who refers to medieval Islam as the "Golden Era of the HUMANITY!" We would not use that therm to any specific era, including the West tgoday. In fact we consider the term to be both arrogant and a failure to respect cultural diversity.]
Logically our Muslim contributor is correct that departure from Islam is one possible reason for the the decline of Muslim science. But there are several others.
One other logical option is that Muslim countries are backward because there is too much Islam.
For many Islamicists, science is not high on their list of riorities. Our Pakistani reader himself has asked us just how important technology is, suggesting that Islam is more important. Obviously any socity sets its own values. If Islam is more important than science, than Muslim countries will get more religion than science.
The obsession with religion has a profound impact on science in the Muslim world. Our reader writes, " "Tthe practice of science is also practice of religion. you cannot separate the two. how can you practice Quran in toto if you abandon the pursuit of knowledge of those verses (over 600) which directly deal with Science? Point for you to understand here is that you need to convine me that Islam (Quran) is unscientific or that it does not promote science. What can I do if the practitioners (muslims) stop reading,understanding,and implementing Quran altogether from their lives?"
Of course to persue science, it must be separate from religion, especially the mind-set of the 7th century mind expressed in the Koran and which Islam does not allow to be questioned.
Here our reader attempts to avoid responsibility for the actual impact of Islam on Muslim countries. He repeatedly says that Muslim countries are not Islamic and thus the woes of these countries can not be attributed to Islam. I understand that this is intelectually satisfying to him. But just because you repeat it many times, does not mean thay it becomes an acceptable argument. This is the same logic the Communists used explaining the failure of their regimes. In my eye it is simply an excuse to avoid accepting responsibility for the failed regimes that exist in the Muslim world. Why tghey have failed is a complicated topic, but Islam is surely a factor.
Let us accept our reader'scontention that Muslim countries today are backward because they have strayed from Islam. Using the same logic than the countries that are the furthest from Islam would be the most backward and the countries where Sharia Law is most important the most advanced.
Is that the case in the Muslim world? He surely knows more than I, but didn't the Taliban implement Sharia Law? I'd say yhey were rather tolerant and backward. I don't recall awhole lot od science and art from that lot. But as I say I don't know all that much about Muslim countries. I's be interested in his assessment here.
Again using your logic that the Muslim world is backward because it has strayed from Islam, why then is the Christian/Secular West so much more advance in science and more prosperous than Muslim countries? Muslim countries may have strayed from Islam, but certainly we poor souls in the West have strayed further from Islam that people in Muslim countries. Using his contention that Islam promotes science it should be the West that is the most backward in Science as well as other intelectual persuits because we are furtherv from Islam. Of course Christians an Jews are people of the Book. According to our reader countries like Hindu India and atheistic China should also be weaker in sciebnce than the Muslim world. But in fact they are not.
Nut our Pakistani reader has an answer, "The West was able to progress scientifically because it was able to free itself from the clutches of christianity which promoted a perverted view of the world (eg blind faith). Islam always provoked man to 'reason and argue and experiment and observe and ponder and think and analyze and evaluate'--all the tools for the making of Science. It basically introduced science to humanity. The West saw how the Muslims benefitted from such an outlook and they adopted it to perfection. The problem with muslim world today is their rulers who loot Nations wealth and deposit it in swiss accounts, allow loans to be written off for the industrialists, and never account tax from the business and capitalist elite. How can a nation prosper when the governments do not play their roles?"
But this assessment simply does not hold up to basic logic. The Renaisance did begin to free the Medieval mind from religious control. The Enlightenment went even further. But this does not explain why the West would surpass the Muslim world, only that it would would better than when religion limited science. The simple fact is that while the West freed science from priests and other relgious officials, the Muslim world never freed scientists and other academics from Islamic clerics.
Our reader asks how we define backwardness. He assumes that we are primarily looking at technology. Well when discussing science that is surely the major factor. But when discussing the topic in general we would suggest a range of factors, including ecomonic productivity, prosperity (percapita income), public health (infant mortality, longevity, sanitation, nutrition, etc.), education (literacy, school attendence--inclufing girls), political democracy, civil liberties (especially free speech), religious freedom, artistic achievement, transportation network (paved roads, mass transit, ect.), communications (telephones per capita, access to the internet, ect), and number of books published, These are some of the major indicators that we would look at i assessing countries and in ranking advanced and backward countries. Many of these factors are indicators that can be quantified and thus comparisons can be made between countries, although this is complicated by the fact that many backward countries do not compile or release accurate statistical data. The results would show that indeed most Muslim countries are backward, although the oil countries will score very high in some of these indicators.
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