Muslims And Science

In response to Dr. Umer''s article "Muslims need to contribute in Science"
would like to add some more points which my well learned friend didn't overlooked. The Contribution of Muslims in any field in negligible in this time and age, which is unfortunate.
Last year U.S based Turkish scientist Tanis Ander, a Muslim, expressed his anguish by writing this and I quote, “If all the muslim scientists died at a time hardly anyone among the scientific community will notice”. This statement pierced right through my heart. It's unfortunate.

Muslims, so far, have won just three Nobel Prizes, in all fields combined and this shows our limited contribution to the world of knowledge. Muslims are the second largest religious community in the world and yet their contribution to Science is almost negligible. Only four universties in world are among top four hundred universities.The Royal Society's Atlas of Islamic-World Science and Innovation reveals that scientists in the Arab world (comprising 17 of the OIC countries) produce a total of 13,444 scientific publications in 2005–some 2,000 fewer than the 15,455 achieved by Harvard University alone. The quality of the papers is also extremely poor.
If we look at it we will find that in past we have produced great scientists, philosophers, social scientists, like Ibn Haythem, Ibn Khaldun, Ibn Rushd, Ibn Jahiz etc., but that's however not true for the Muslims in the present. Muslims lack much behind other civilisation.
The reasons why the Muslims lag so much behind and why there is so little contribution from the Muslim world need to discussed properly and widely.
Colonisation is one important reason for it. The colonial baggage that Muslims all over the world carry, the humiliation of the past and the slave mentality have demoralised the Muslims of the contemporary world to take active participation in any field, including science.
On an average,the Muslim world spends less than half of 1 per cent of their GDP on research and development, compared with five times of that percentage in the developed world(COMSTECH, OIC Comittee Report). Data from Unesco and the World Bank, show that a group of twenty representatives from the OIC countries have spent 0.34 per cent of their overall GDP combined, on scientific research between 1996 and 2003–just one-seventh of the global average of 2.36 per cent.
This shows that the investment from the Muslim countries in Scientific Research is insignificant and therefore inconsequential. This requires these Muslim countries to take strong initiatives and invest more in scientific research in order to compete with the west.
The literacy rate among Muslims is very low as well. Of the 1.4 billion Muslims, only 800 million are literate, i.e., out of every ten Muslims, only six can read and write. Strong steps need to be taken in ensuring that the literacy rate among the Muslims increase.
In 1990, an eminent biologist Faroukh Mohammad Ibrahim of University Of Khanoum in Sudan was jailed for teaching his students evolution (theory which was given by muslim scientist Ibn Jahiz in his book Kitaab 'Al Haiwanaat' according to Will Durant’s Eleven voluminous History Of Civilization).This shows the lack of tolerance for scientific theories that do not sit well with the Islamic teachings in the Muslim world. A scholar like Jamaluddin Afghani who was pro science, felt strongly against imperialism showed absolutely zero tolerance for the teachings of evolution. This lack of tolerance for certain scientific theories has costed the Muslim world tremendously. Muslims need to learn and be tolerant so that they can develop scientific temper. Even for rebuking and giving arguements against any theory they need to learn that theory and have its proper understanding.
The need de-politicise certain education institutes is also required in many Muslim countries. Eminent Scientist Parvez Houdbhoy in his book “Muslims And Science” discussed about the kind of questions that were asked to scientists regarding religion, creed, etc., during the Zia ul Haq Regime. This shows the lack to space that was and still to a very large extent was given to the research scholars in Muslim countries. Scientists and scholars deserve a free space to work in and such interferences by the government as well as the religious fanatics should be strongly discouraged and condemned.
We have three to ten masjids (without libraries) in one colony but not even a single library . We need to have libraries and reading rooms in every colony with wide ranging subjects. And add libraries in masjid as religous institutes have played great role in intellectual growth of societies. Bait ul maals, mohalla and masjid committees can play an important by giving scholarships to bright and poor students so they get encouraged.
According to muslim scholar Ubaidullah Obeidi, muslim scholars during Abbasid Rule were called Jewish and Christian patrons for their rational beliefs though some of them had controversial or un-islamic beliefs. For example, Ibn Sena didn’t believe in the concept of life after death or Al-Farabi did not believe in revelation. This also discouraged many Muslim scientists to openly practice their beliefs and consequently reduced their active participation in scientific research.
Year 2015 was declared by UNESCO as international year of optics in the rememberance of Al Haitham muslim scientists but hardly any muslim country remembered him. There is hardly any research institute or a university that is named after any of our great scientists. Therefore, there is a need to symbolise them so that youth take inspiration from them.
We always try to prove scientific laws by Quran which is a wrong methodology and waste of time. Even some fundamentalist Muslim scholars such as Syed Qutb have said that Quran is the book of guidance, morals, ethics. It is a book that teaches us how to live in this world and one must not treat it as a book of science only.
Women from a very early time have contributed to the field of science. Zubaidah (wife of Harun Rashid ) did pioneering work in engineering, Fatima Al Fehri has the credit of establishing the first university that gave a degree, Maryam Al Jiya made some important contributions to the field of biology. World's top mathematics award field medal awardee Maryam Mizakhami has done a great job in mathematics is only muslim women name in present times. Unfortunately, in present times hardly any muslim women scientist has played any great role in science. It is common in muslim societies, women is said to have less aql, intellect than men though they have always proved their mettle in every field. Even,they are not encouraged to take stem education and study Science. We need to encourage them.
According to Muslim historian, Irfan Habib in his book “Jehad or Ijtihaad”, a fatwa was issued by Sheikh Ahmad Sirhindi against the people who studied Mathematics, Science. This also caused a decline in the contribution by muslims in the field of science. Even today questioning and rationality is discouraged in muslim countries.
For encouraging budding Muslim scientists to contribute freely in their domains, there is a need to have secular orientation towards Science, an aim at development of individuality, obtaining of knowledge through an empirical process and providing a space for questioning and reasoning. A positivist environment should be encouraged to create an active-positivist