The Student Room Group

Why has the Muslim world made no Contribution to Science and Technology?

.. in the last 500 years?

There are almost 2 billion Muslims in the world. But I can't think of a significant contribution in the last 500 years.

Let's face it the most successful Muslims in recent times are those living in western countries or with western education.

Afterall, Islam is a complete way of life and according to many Muslims superior to any other.

Why have they regressed somuch?
(edited 6 years ago)

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Reply 1
lol delete
Reply 2
Original post by Sarahsez
.. in the last 500 years?

There are almost 2 billion Muslims in the world. But I can't think of a significant contribution.

Why have they regressed somuch?


Because the majority of people in research today aren't muslims?

Here's a list https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Muslim_scientists

There's one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_H._Zewail#Research


So now whenever you're troubled you can think of a muslim scientist's contribution :smile:
inb4 they jump on this thread claiming muslims invented algebra.
don't feed the trolls :wink:
Original post by Sarahsez
.. in the last 500 years?

There are almost 2 billion Muslims in the world. But I can't think of a significant contribution.

Why have they regressed somuch?


What's a "Muslim scientist", as opposed to just a.....well...scientist? Other than religion, what's the difference? Are they less able?

I wonder what contribution Blue-Eyed-Blonde-Haired scientists have made. What about scientists that are under 6 foot tall.

:holmes:
(edited 6 years ago)
lack of modern contribution is largely due to the internal conflicts between modernism and traditionalism within majority Muslim countries.

History, and recent examples have shown that there is certainly nothing that would stop a progressive Islamic society from contributing largely to scientific discovery/progress, but sadly due to the current wave of traditionalism within many Islamic countries this is not happening.

There are many scientists who are muslim, but by and large they work in western universities in 'progressive' countries, rather then within Islamic societies.

Its interesting in general to look at how education/schools/universities work within Islam, and its a great shame for me to see more traditionalism coming back. You only have to look at the number of Islamic faith schools compared to 'secular' schools within Islamic countries to see that the current trend is towards faith and away from secular education. In part I would put this down to an ongoing reaction against the progressive movements of the 50s/60s/70s that are now deemed to have failed within many Islamic countries. Its a shame, and as a western individual, one of our biggest mistakes of the 20th century was not supporting the progressive movements within Islam strongly enough (in fact on some occasions we went against them). If we had supported them fully, maybe now we would not be seeing the return to traditionalism that is in part causing such tension in many parts of the world.

So all in all - there is nothing to stop Islamic countries and individuals from contributing scientifically, they have done in the past, and many individuals do today. But the increasingly traditionalist culture/approach to Islam in many Islamic countries is currently hindering their ability to contribute on the level of many western countries.
Original post by fallen_acorns

So all in all - there is nothing to stop Islamic countries and individuals from contributing scientifically, they have done in the past, and many individuals do today. But the increasingly traditionalist culture/approach to Islam in many Islamic countries is currently hindering their ability to contribute on the level of many western countries.


Why would it have any effect on scientific output?
not choosing to go into research does not equal regressing lol, alot of muslims work in other areas of science.
Reply 9
Muhammad bin musa al-khwarizmi wrote the book that established algebra as a mathematical discipline.
Abdus Salam won a Nobel prize in 1979 for his wok in particle physics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdus_Salam
Here is another one

https://www.statnews.com/2016/07/28/cancer-research-moonshot-immigrant/
There many Muslim scientists doing work in various fields.
Just because they have not written popular science books does not mean they are not there.
If you could actually be bothered to look it up,you will find many examples of Muslim scientists.

The reason you can't think of a contribution is because you are someone that reads maybe popular science books.I doubt you know much about science or scientists at all.For example,how many female British scientists can you name that made a contribution in the same time period.Of course many did,but just because you can;'t name many ,does not mean they did not make a contribution.
This is not even a fair question,honestly how many scientists can the public name anyway ?
If I asked members of the public to name any scientist that was not Newton ,Einstein or appeared in a Hollywood movie,how many could they name ?This is such a dumb question.
(edited 6 years ago)
I didn't realise a stated group of people were under a general obligation to contribute to science and/or technology.
:facepalm2:
Original post by fallen_acorns
lack of modern contribution is largely due to the internal conflicts between modernism and traditionalism within majority Muslim countries.

History, and recent examples have shown that there is certainly nothing that would stop a progressive Islamic society from contributing largely to scientific discovery/progress, but sadly due to the current wave of traditionalism within many Islamic countries this is not happening.

There are many scientists who are muslim, but by and large they work in western universities in 'progressive' countries, rather then within Islamic societies.

Its interesting in general to look at how education/schools/universities work within Islam, and its a great shame for me to see more traditionalism coming back. You only have to look at the number of Islamic faith schools compared to 'secular' schools within Islamic countries to see that the current trend is towards faith and away from secular education. In part I would put this down to an ongoing reaction against the progressive movements of the 50s/60s/70s that are now deemed to have failed within many Islamic countries. Its a shame, and as a western individual, one of our biggest mistakes of the 20th century was not supporting the progressive movements within Islam strongly enough (in fact on some occasions we went against them). If we had supported them fully, maybe now we would not be seeing the return to traditionalism that is in part causing such tension in many parts of the world.

So all in all - there is nothing to stop Islamic countries and individuals from contributing scientifically, they have done in the past, and many individuals do today. But the increasingly traditionalist culture/approach to Islam in many Islamic countries is currently hindering their ability to contribute on the level of many western countries.
thank you for an intelligent, balanced post

this is very rare on threads dealing with Islam, and deserves appreciation

best
Original post by bobby147
Abdus Salam won a Nobel prize in 1979 for his wok in particle physics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdus_Salam

.
Abdus Salam was an Ahmadi. Most Muslims would say that he was "out of the fold of Islam"

of course that there are many Muslim scientists : but the issue is Islam's outlook on the world, its depreciation of our physical world in favour of afterlife, the concentration of efforts on religious rituals and instruction, rather than on scientific research and improvement of living conditions for humans

best
[video="youtube;0eiCxzXY8XQ"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eiCxzXY8XQ&index=16&list=LLxMQWu9wwY8ghCtJS4sft7w[/video]
I can't think of specifics at the top of my head but during the Islamic Golden era, Muslims made huge contributions to science. I believe a Muslim invented Algebra and the camera, just to name a couple. I'm sure there are plenty more though, just do some research.

And in the modern day as some have suggested above we had Dr. Abdus Salam.
Original post by ABeingOnEarth
[video="youtube;0eiCxzXY8XQ"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eiCxzXY8XQ&index=16&list=LLxMQWu9wwY8ghCtJS4sft7w[/video]


That was well over 500 years ago.
Original post by bobby147
Abdus Salam won a Nobel prize in 1979 for his wok in particle physics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdus_Salam


Salam departed from his country, in protest, after the Pakistan Parliament passed a controversial parliamentary bill declaring that members of the Ahmadiyya movement, to which Salam belonged, were not Muslims.


His own country won't even accept him as a Muslim.
Well believing in superstitious nonsense is directly contradictory to a scientific way of thinking so it could have something to do with that?

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