Oil Rich Muslims Are Science Poor
Last Tuesday I wrote about The Myth That Islam Encourages Scientific Inquiry by noting that there are scant examples of intellectual accomplishments among modern Muslims.
Now I will explain why this is so and why the Islamic Golden Age is also a myth.
Although those of us who study the matter know quite well that Islam has been on the decline since the 13th century, what is little known is that Islamic learning has never been on the rise. For the first 600 years during its great conquests Muslim rulers allowed the non-Muslim populations to be creative and industrious because Muslims were a tiny minority in these lands and feared revolt if they forced conversion to Islam.
It was mostly these non-Muslims who contributed the accomplishments usually attributed to Muslims (1).
Islam was a new religion and Islamic scholars did not yet put in place the restrictions on learning and intellectual pursuits that Islam has today. But as Islam became more and more repressive, infidels found it unbearable to live as dhimmis and converted in mass numbers to Islam. Where once Muslims were a minority, they soon became the majority, and so Islamic rulers were no longer in fear of insurrection of the minority religions. They were free to impose true Islam into every facet of life, thus killing the spirit of inquiry and free thought.
The Golden Age of Islam was actually the Golden Age of Arabs, Jews, Persians, Hindus and others who through sharing of knowledge brought to the world great learning and advancements in science, humanities, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, chemistry, zoology and geography.
Once Muslims were in the majority, the histories of the conquered peoples were no longer of interest; anything that occurred before Mohammed came on the scene was not important.
Once Muslims were in the majority, books before Mohammed came on the scene were of no interest.
Once Muslims were in the majority, books after the Qur'an was codified and the ahadith compiled were of no value.
Islam eventually extinguished any interest in new ideas and innovation and so ended the so-called Golden Age of Islam.
The Muslim world is the most backward, disease-ridden, filthy, repressive, barbaric, and ignorant of all the nations on Earth. Many Muslims will make the excuse that this is the result of exploitation and colonization. But who is colonizing and exploiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait today? For example, click here to see how infidels exploit Kuwait.
Then there is the excuse, that Muslim countries are too poor to invest in scientific research. Oh really? Would it surprise you to learn that the oil monarchies of the Gulf spend about 0.2% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on science (2) while tiny, teensy-weensy, itsy-bitsy little Israel with no oil revenues spends 25 times (3) as much?
Sorry, but if Muslim countries want to become advanced, civilized, intelligent, inquisitive, healthy, and more like Israel, they have only to do one thing: throw away the Qur'an. Or find a better use for it; I left a suggestion at the top of the page.
ENDNOTES
(1):
Wikipedia, Islamic Golden Age
During this period the Muslim world became a major intellectual centre for science, philosophy, medicine and education. They established the "House of Wisdom") in Baghdad, where scholars, both Muslim and non-Muslim, sought to gather and translate all the world's knowledge into Arabic in the Translation Movement. Many classic works of antiquity that would otherwise have been forgotten were translated into Arabic and later in turn translated into Turkish, Sindhi, Persian, Hebrew and Latin. Knowledge was synthesized from works originating in ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Rome, China, India, Persia, Ancient Egypt, North Africa, Ancient Greece and Byzantine civilizations.
(2):
Nature Magazine, Islam and Science: Oil rich, science poor
The monarchies of the Gulf are the richest of all Muslim nations, but little of that wealth is spent on research. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait spend about 0.2% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on science — less than one-tenth of the developed-country average of 2.3% and about a third of that spent by less wealthy Iran. The oil monarchs have the financial clout to launch major research efforts, but have yet to do so.
(3):
Seeking Alpha, Israel's R&D Spending Is Tops in the World
While Silicon Valley and other regions of high tech innovation in the U.S. are struggling, start-ups are flourishing in Israel. In the past few decades Israel has become a leader in the hi-tech field. According to some estimates, Israel has a higher density of start-ups than any other country in the world. One of the main reason for this high rate of success is the amount spent on R&D by Israel.
