Posted on 12/06/2004 10:19:30 AM PST by quidnunc
The Islamic nations of the world have a population of nearly 1.5 billion, or about one-quarter of the human population of Earth. Yet the gross national product of these nations totals less than half the GNP of Germany.
Poverty is endemic in the Muslim world, despite the fact that most of the world's petroleum deposits and a quarter of our planet's other natural resources lie within these Muslim lands.
The science minister of Pakistan, Atta-ur-Raman, and science adviser Anwar Nasim point out in a recent issue of the British journal Nature that Muslim nations spend only 0.2 percent of their GNP on scientific research, while spending up to seven percent of GNP on their military. They argue that if the nations of Islam put more funding into science, they could create significant economic growth.
Islam once led the world in science.
While Europe wallowed in the poverty and ignorance of the dark ages after the fall of the Roman Empire, the lands of Islam preserved much of the classic learning that was lost in Europe.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at naplesnews.com ...
Incorrect, the Arab World once flourished in science, until they adopted Islam. Arabs were not always Muslim.
I was at an engagement party for two Jewish doctors. A guy I was talking to who has been to Israel often said one of the big differences in the ME is that "Israelis make microchips, Syrians make potato chips." Tbe rigidity of present day Islam precludes scientific advances. Years ago I dated an engineer who was consulting with Saudi Arabia. He said it was common to see abandoned cars everywhere, even expensive Mercedes b/c there were no trained mechanics. They would just buy new ones instead of fixing them. He said there was a terrible dearth of basic engineeting and math education there and that the people whom he was trying to teach had no kind of mechanical aptitude (although we know that they used Western education to navigate planes learning only enough to blow them up). Maybe if the Arab world took advantage of the brains of half their population (women) there would be more advances. But that's a long time coming if at all.
In their golden age, they did. They invented algebra. They did work in astronomy. Many names of stars have Arabic names (Altair, Aldebaran, etc ..). Also, they were quite advanced in medicine.
Another reason why their economies aren't flourishing is the lack of personal freedom in these Muslim countries. Free speech and freedom of religion is generally curtailed if not banned outright. Worse yet is that Islamic societies limit the ability to gain a liberal education particularly for females. Where do you get doctors, nurses, teachers and entreprenuers when roughly half the population is kept marginally educated and cloistered in their homes and the other half is offered education based only on the Koran and a rejection of "Western" ideas?
Assuming this is true, SO WHAT?! What is obvious that that Islam does NOT lead the world in science today. Even if Islam 'once led the world in science', it has shown that it is unable to maintain that lead or remain even reasonably close to the lead. This is like boasting in a horse race, 'Sure we are 20 lengths in back now, but we were in the lead around the second turn.' It's just a little silly.
"What is MCXII divided by VII?"
CLVIII with VI remaining.
WINSTON CHURCHILL, ON ISLAM:
"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries!
- "Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity.
The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities...but the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.
Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome."
~Sir Winston Churchill, from The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248-50
Churchill certainly had Islam pegged!
And had Islam pegged as long ago as 1899 (and before).
The only science the Muslim world every had was "conquered" science.
Now show that result as a decimal. LOL.
he certainly did
regards
YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY CORRECT!
Most muslims are no more "Muslim" than Americans are "Christian." Those Muslims who aren't really Muslim would be the more peaceful ones however.
From what I have read, they developed absolutely nothing new. They did, however, act as a conduit for knowledge from east to west.
Read somewhere of some Syrian citizen complaing that even the quality of breakfast cereals in Israel was better than those in Syria. Paraphrasing: 'even though their country is only fifty years old they are already one-hundred-and-fifty years ahead of us'. Lay that directly at the feet of their stifling religion!
Arabs were NOT always muslims you know. They had QUITE a few thousands of years when they weren't involved in the death cult of islamics. The numbers came about PRE_mohamed.
"While Europe wallowed in the poverty and ignorance of the dark ages after the fall of the Roman Empire, the lands of Islam preserved much of the classic learning that was lost in Europe."
And Europe is getting both today: more ignorant and more Muslim, too.
Europe is no longer a Christian region.
I said it in # 5 but I saved a lot of words.
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