I think the main factor is the lack of focus given to scientific education in muslim countries, most of the focus is instead given to religious studies. The culture seems to reinforce the idea that they need to learn about relligion foremost, and science is considered an after-thought if there's any time left after reading the koran. Perhaps this is why people are not as much interested in science and never take the time to learn things on their own..
In Iraq, we studied Islamic Studies for 2-3 hours a week as a maximum all through primary and secondary school. At uni, we never studied Islam. So I don't think this is a reason.
The second thing could be that their educational system teaches them only to memorize facts and figures without actually understanding the concepts behind them.
More like it.
Muslim countries are simply backwards and poor shite holes that put zero value and investment in science and education because we're too fucking busy debating whether a jinn stole your ipod.
That might be true to some extent but I think the problem has more to do with the Arab society which doesn't value research-based scientific degrees as much as professional degrees such as Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy or Engineering. The reason is employability. Arabs are crazy about making money. Plus, every Arab university student's main concern is getting married and I don't blame them. They're tired of porn and jerking off and just wanna fuck. That's why the overwhelming majority don't pursue the career they like but the one that is likely to enable them to make as much money as possible in order to establish themselves ASAP, get married ASAP, and fuck ASAP.
Accordingly, the main goal of universities and education authorities in most Arab countries is training good
professionals rather than good
scientists. There is very little focus on natural sciences. That's why almost all BScs end up working in other fields or at best get a job as high school teachers.
Moreover, the governments only put laughable amounts of money into research thus the quality of education and research overall is very poor.
But also, countries that are rich, like Saudi and Dubai, instead spend their money on skyscrapers and funding Hamas when they easily could build some of the most state of the art universities if they had the political and intellectual will. But they don't have that will because the government has vested interests in satisfying religious groups who are far more powerful than the tiny intellectual class.
They have invested in education.
Bahrain,
Qatar, and
Dubai are beginning to do so but as you can see they're focusing on professional education rather than natural sciences.
And lets not forget that compared to the west, the rest of the non-muslim world hasn't contributed much to scientific discoveries either.
True that.
What have the heartland nations of Islam done with that wealth? They could have spent it on creating scientific institutions across the Islamic nations of unprecedented resources in the history of mankind. Instead they chose as their priority to spend it on propagating Islam in non Muslim lands and propagating salafi Islam in traditionally Muslim societies.
Not really. Apart from the occasional mosque or Islamic Centre in the West, I don't think they spend much money of spreading Islam. They instead spend their money on giant SUVs with massive engines, villas, prostitutes, luxury items....etc. Don't forget the rulers and the royal families take a lot of money too.
It's just that they don't value scientific innovation. Many think life is a test and there's no point wasting time on research. They just have to get as much Hasanat as they can so that they end up in heaven.
I agree with everything else you said.
I remember showing Muslims on Ummah studies by Swedish and US scientists of links between homosexuality and genetics (for instance, 33% higher chance of being gay if you're left-handed despite left-handedness and homosexuality being a disproportionately small minority - I'm gay and left-handed, two of my gay friends are left-handed too, and left-handedness is innate) and they called this "Western propoganda". I also showed them numerous studies showing homosexuality being recorded in the animal kingdom which they refused to believe.
You're right . You should watch the amazing piece Lesley Stahl did on the subject for 60 minutes. One study, that's been conducted for years now, shows that children who turn out to be gay in the future show striking difference in attitude at ages as young as 1 year.
Here I just found the segment on youtube:
youtube.com/watch?v=fOO1Y4OryWYBTW, Ms Stahl is the oldest woman I've ever had a crush on
This quote from Fareed Ad'Deen Al'Attar quite describes me;
"I doubt. I doubt my doubt. Doubt itself is uncertain! I love, but who is it for whom I sigh? Not muslim, yet not heathen, who am I?"
Who is Fareed Ad'Deen Al'Attar?
Topic: Why are most prominent scientists western rather than muslim?