Islam the answer? Muslims must change

By Maqbool Ahmed Siraj

Muslims had no clue about the West’s designs. They were being led by mere rhetoric, the illusions of Islam’s popularity which even the Western agencies were engaged in actively sustaining, going by the wishful air that generally pervades the Muslim societies. A boxer embracing Islam here and a Michael Hart eulogizing the Prophet there continued to massage the Islamists’ ego. There was no hard work behind the ‘Islam is the best’ rhetoric. Muslims remained dependent on the Western technology. Imports kept spiraling. Some of these nouveau riche societies fuelled by the oil wealth were methodically acculturated in extravagance, opulence and ostentations. They were being trained to enjoy luxuries they themselves were not able to produce and provide. Human genius from the poorer and less developed Muslim societies was systematically poached and taken to the West. The Ummah has been bled white. It is barely able to crystallize an objective for itself, let alone guiding the destiny of the humanity.

Far from being the standard-bearers of an ideology that could promise salvation, Muslims today offer no hope. Few among them have any sense of direction and the perception of the grave challenges posed by the exploitative West. They are groping through the thick smog made up of sentiments, romanticised memories of the past and verbal rhetoric. Led by an ill-informed clergy totally bereft of the ground realities and needs of the human society and brought up on the stale diet of hackneyed ideas, Muslims are nowhere in the reckoning. Far from offering the humanity any alternative, they are vulnerable to experimentation of all and sundry ideologies. All new weapons are being tested on the Muslim lands and are even paid for by the Arab oil money stacked in the Western banks. They have missed the bandwagon of knowledge and are poor on the scale of values. No great ideas have emerged from their societies during the last six decades. They have built few institutions of repute and real learning. Barring a few nations, they are ruled by despots, monarchs, dictators, army generals and self-styled leaders. In fact they are all rulers. The Muslim world has produced few leaders. These rulers lead nobody except themselves. Their societies suffer from pathetic paucity of role models.

The exodus of creative genius from the Muslim societies towards the West provides a partial answer to such queries. Restrictive social and political environment drives away the learned, the intellectuals and the scholars to where they find a vent for their knowledge and skills. Ask a group of 100 post graduate students anywhere in the Muslim world as to which country they would choose to migrate if the option is between the USA and Saudi Arabia. Chances are that 85 per cent would opt for the US. Why? Because the deficits in knowledge, freedom and women’s empowerment in the Arab world (and more or less all over the Muslim world) does not enthuse a pursuer of knowledge, cherisher of values, or lover of freedom and believer in gender equity. Education and learning in the Islamic world suppresses questioning, independent thinking and self-confidence leading to passive attitudes. No wonder then why life in Muslim countries is so monotonous with only food and worship filling the gaps.

Consequently, we have some of the most ignorant, illiterate and uncreative societies around us. No major invention has emerged from the Muslim world for the last five centuries. In numerical terms, 41 predominantly Muslim countries with about 20 per cent of the world’s total population generate less than 5 per cent of its scientific output, going by the proportion of citations of articles published in international science journals. A study by academics at the International Islamic University Malaysia showed that OIC countries have 8.5 scientists, engineers, and technicians per 1,000 population, compared with a world average of 40.7, and 139.3 for countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (For more on the OECD, see http://www.oecd.org.) On average, the 57 OIC states spend an estimated 0.3 per cent of their gross national product on research and development, which is far below the global average of 2.4 per cent. Yet another determining factor for diffusion of knowledge is the number of available scientists, engineers, and technicians. Those numbers are low for OIC countries, averaging around 400–500 per million people, while developed countries typically lie in the range of 3500–5000 per million.

Forty-six Muslim countries contributed 1.17 per cent of the world’s science literature, whereas 1.66 per cent came from India alone and 1.48 per cent from Spain. Twenty Arab countries contributed 0.55 per cent compared with 0.89 per cent by Israel alone. The US NSF records that of the 28 lowest producers of scientific articles in 2003, half belong to the OIC. According to the Pakistan Council for Science and Technology, Pakistani researchers have registered just eight international patents in the past 43 years. In 2004, high-tech exports – mostly software – amounted to just one per cent of total exports from our neighbouring country.

Talk about science, education and research, one perforce looks at the record of the Arabs, because it is they who have resources to spare on such pursuits. But Arabs have proved themselves the worst (or best) laggards, coming even behind Turks, Iranians, Pakistanis, Malaysians and Indonesian. The Arab world has less than 53 newspapers per 1,000 Arab citizens compared to 285 papers per 1,000 for developed countries. Arabs have 18 computers per 1,000 persons against global average 78 for 1,000. Translation is considered to be the most important channel of diffusion of knowledge. On average, only 4.4 translated books per million people were published between 1980-85 in the Arab world, while the corresponding rate in Hungary (not a very enlightened society by current standards) was 519 books and with regard to Spain it was 920 books. The number of scientists and engineers working in R&D in Arab countries is not more than 371 per million citizens while the global ratio is 979 per million. Arabs constitute 5 per cent of the world population but produce only 1.1 per cent of the books, most of which is religious literature. The production of literary and artistic books in Arab countries is lower than the general level. In 1996, it did not exceed 1,945 books, representing only 0.8 per cent of world production, i.e., less than the production of a country such as Turkey, with a population one quarter of that of Arab countries. With such pathetic state of diffusion and dissemination of knowledge, how do we expect to offer any solution or salvation to a world racked by wars, catastrophes, both human and natural?

The Arabs lack of creativity is the ideal fodder for doomsayers. All that they manufacture together is less than what is produced by the Philippines. In 20 years – between 1980 and 2000–Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, the UAE and Syria could register merely 367 patents. Their chief foe Israel registered 7,652 patents while tiny South Korea had 16,328 patents.

The 57 OIC countries together have 1,800 universities. But no university makes a grade among the top-100 listed by the Newsweek every year or the top-500 ranking compiled by Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

If knowledge comes last among the priorities of Muslims, social values are even more elusive. Most Muslim societies are corruption ridden, though social crimes might be less prevalent. Most Muslims tend to look at the individual pieties to judge their own societies. Only 13 Muslim countries figure among the first 100 least corrupt nations, remaining being listed among the more and most corrupt ones on the Corruption Perception Index of the Transparency International. Be it freedom of religion, speech, press, most Muslim nations make a heap at the bottom. No wonder then why Muslim believers in liberal humanism and intellectuals like Hossein Nasr, Ziauddin Sardar, Tariq Ali, Akbar Ahmed, Dr. Fazlur Rahman, Nimat Hafez Barzangi, Asma Barlas, Ayesha Jalal, Khaled Abul Fadl, Raji Al Faruqi, Hashir Farooqi, Tariq Ramadan have to seek the Western hospitality. These were not the people of the ilk of Rushdie, Taslima or Hirsi Ali. Yet they found the air unwelcome in their own societies. The West accommodates them just as it thinks necessary to have in its midst Noam Chowmsky, George Galloway, Anne Marie Schemmel, Karen Armstrong, Murad Hofmann, Roger Garaudy et al.

Numerical growth of the Ummah or the noticeable growth in ritual practices holds no key to its weight, assertiveness, prestige and prosperity. Minuscule communities/nations such as Jews, Parsis and Koreans have contributed to the humanity and gained respect than an impoverished, uncreative and weightless Muslim multitudes. It is time for us to assess if the Ummah is anywhere near offering salvation to the misery ridden humanity. It is time to seriously question all that rhetoric that has been fed to the somnolent community.

Most believers of ‘Islam is the alternative’ campaign grossly overestimate the capacity of the followers of Islam. They mainly go by their increasing numbers which is purely a result of demographic expansion. Their increased visibility in the West also boosts their confidence. In the 70s when Shah Faisal stopped the supply of oil to the West for their crime of planting and supporting the Zionist state of Israel, some hope arose on the horizon. It appeared as if the ummah (the global Muslim community) was beginning to retrieve its soul from the West. But soon these hopes were dashed, shattered to smithereens. The West brought in new stratagems. They started studying Islam afresh. Several of us mistook this study for love for Islam/Muslims in the West. Not alone history, society and languages, but even the economic resources, historical animosities, tribal and ethnic affiliations, sectarian divides, ideological schisms, came to be mapped and explored. It was more methodical. Muslims had no clue about the West’s designs. They were being led by mere rhetoric, the illusions of Islam’s popularity which even the Western agencies were engaged in actively sustaining, going by the wishful air that generally pervades the Muslim societies. A boxer embracing Islam here and a Michael Hart eulogizing the Prophet there continued to massage the Islamists’ ego. There was no hard work behind the ‘Islam is the best’ rhetoric. Muslims remained dependent on the Western technology. Imports kept spiraling. Some of these nouveau riche societies fuelled by the oil wealth were methodically acculturated in extravagance, opulence and ostentations. They were being trained to enjoy luxuries they themselves were not able to produce and provide. Human genius from the poorer and less developed Muslim societies was systematically poached and taken to the West. The Ummah has been bled white. It is barely able to crystallize an objective for itself, let alone guiding the destiny of the humanity. Far from being the standard-bearers of an ideology that could promise salvation, Muslims today offer no hope. Few among them have any sense of direction and the perception of the grave challenges posed by the exploitative West. They are groping through the thick smog made up of sentiments, romanticised memories of the past and verbal rhetoric. Led by an ill-informed clergy totally bereft of the ground realities and needs of the human society and brought up on the stale diet of hackneyed ideas, Muslims are nowhere in the reckoning. Far from offering the humanity any alternative, they are vulnerable to experimentation of all and sundry ideologies. All new weapons are being tested on the Muslim lands and are even paid for by the Arab oil money stacked in the Western banks. They have missed the bandwagon of knowledge and are poor on the scale of values. No great ideas have emerged from their societies during the last six decades. They have built few institutions of repute and real learning. Barring a few nations, they are ruled by despots, monarchs, dictators, army generals and self-styled leaders. In fact they are all rulers. The Muslim world has produced few leaders. These rulers lead nobody except themselves. Their societies suffer from pathetic paucity of role models. The exodus of creative genius from the Muslim societies towards the West provides a partial answer to such queries. Restrictive social and political environment drives away the learned, the intellectuals and the scholars to where they find a vent for their knowledge and skills. Ask a group of 100 post graduate students anywhere in the Muslim world as to which country they would choose to migrate if the option is between the USA and Saudi Arabia. Chances are that 85 per cent would opt for the US. Why? Because the deficits in knowledge, freedom and women’s empowerment in the Arab world (and more or less all over the Muslim world) does not enthuse a pursuer of knowledge, cherisher of values, or lover of freedom and believer in gender equity. Education and learning in the Islamic world suppresses questioning, independent thinking and self-confidence leading to passive attitudes. No wonder then why life in Muslim countries is so monotonous with only food and worship filling the gaps. Consequently, we have some of the most ignorant, illiterate and uncreative societies around us. No major invention has emerged from the Muslim world for the last five centuries. In numerical terms, 41 predominantly Muslim countries with about 20 per cent of the world’s total population generate less than 5 per cent of its scientific output, going by the proportion of citations of articles published in international science journals. A study by academics at the International Islamic University Malaysia showed that OIC countries have 8.5 scientists, engineers, and technicians per 1,000 population, compared with a world average of 40.7, and 139.3 for countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (For more on the OECD, see http://www.oecd.org.) On average, the 57 OIC states spend an estimated 0.3 per cent of their gross national product on research and development, which is far below the global average of 2.4 per cent. Yet another determining factor for diffusion of knowledge is the number of available scientists, engineers, and technicians. Those numbers are low for OIC countries, averaging around 400–500 per million people, while developed countries typically lie in the range of 3500–5000 per million. Forty-six Muslim countries contributed 1.17 per cent of the world’s science literature, whereas 1.66 per cent came from India alone and 1.48 per cent from Spain. Twenty Arab countries contributed 0.55 per cent compared with 0.89 per cent by Israel alone. The US NSF records that of the 28 lowest producers of scientific articles in 2003, half belong to the OIC. According to the Pakistan Council for Science and Technology, Pakistani researchers have registered just eight international patents in the past 43 years. In 2004, high-tech exports – mostly software – amounted to just one per cent of total exports from our neighbouring country. Talk about science, education and research, one perforce looks at the record of the Arabs, because it is they who have resources to spare on such pursuits. But Arabs have proved themselves the worst (or best) laggards, coming even behind Turks, Iranians, Pakistanis, Malaysians and Indonesian. The Arab world has less than 53 newspapers per 1,000 Arab citizens compared to 285 papers per 1,000 for developed countries. Arabs have 18 computers per 1,000 persons against global average 78 for 1,000. Translation is considered to be the most important channel of diffusion of knowledge. On average, only 4.4 translated books per million people were published between 1980-85 in the Arab world, while the corresponding rate in Hungary (not a very enlightened society by current standards) was 519 books and with regard to Spain it was 920 books. The number of scientists and engineers working in R&D in Arab countries is not more than 371 per million citizens while the global ratio is 979 per million. Arabs constitute 5 per cent of the world population but produce only 1.1 per cent of the books, most of which is religious literature. The production of literary and artistic books in Arab countries is lower than the general level. In 1996, it did not exceed 1,945 books, representing only 0.8 per cent of world production, i.e., less than the production of a country such as Turkey, with a population one quarter of that of Arab countries. With such pathetic state of diffusion and dissemination of knowledge, how do we expect to offer any solution or salvation to a world racked by wars, catastrophes, both human and natural? The Arabs lack of creativity is the ideal fodder for doomsayers. All that they manufacture together is less than what is produced by the Philippines. In 20 years – between 1980 and 2000–Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, the UAE and Syria could register merely 367 patents. Their chief foe Israel registered 7,652 patents while tiny South Korea had 16,328 patents. The 57 OIC countries together have 1,800 universities. But no university makes a grade among the top-100 listed by the Newsweek every year or the top-500 ranking compiled by Shanghai Jiao Tong University. If knowledge comes last among the priorities of Muslims, social values are even more elusive. Most Muslim societies are corruption ridden, though social crimes might be less prevalent. Most Muslims tend to look at the individual pieties to judge their own societies. Only 13 Muslim countries figure among the first 100 least corrupt nations, remaining being listed among the more and most corrupt ones on the Corruption Perception Index of the Transparency International. Be it freedom of religion, speech, press, most Muslim nations make a heap at the bottom. No wonder then why Muslim believers in liberal humanism and intellectuals like Hossein Nasr, Ziauddin Sardar, Tariq Ali, Akbar Ahmed, Dr. Fazlur Rahman, Nimat Hafez Barzangi, Asma Barlas, Ayesha Jalal, Khaled Abul Fadl, Raji Al Faruqi, Hashir Farooqi, Tariq Ramadan have to seek the Western hospitality. These were not the people of the ilk of Rushdie, Taslima or Hirsi Ali. Yet they found the air unwelcome in their own societies. The West accommodates them just as it thinks necessary to have in its midst Noam Chowmsky, George Galloway, Anne Marie Schemmel, Karen Armstrong, Murad Hofmann, Roger Garaudy et al. Numerical growth of the Ummah or the noticeable growth in ritual practices holds no key to its weight, assertiveness, prestige and prosperity. Minuscule communities/nations such as Jews, Parsis and Koreans have contributed to the humanity and gained respect than an impoverished, uncreative and weightless Muslim multitudes. It is time for us to assess if the Ummah is anywhere near offering salvation to the misery ridden humanity. It is time to seriously question all that rhetoric that has been fed to the somnolent community.