By Koh Lay Chin
10 January, 2007
KUALA LUMPUR: Muslims must rise above their comfort zones to excel in science
and technology or become victims of poverty, illiteracy and backwardness. Datuk
Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said yesterday that Islam had a rich legacy of
science and culture which should be an inspiration to Muslim societies.
"I am extremely sad that in the Muslim world, the percentage of illiterates is
so high. Not only that, there is no Islamic university that has entered the
ranks of the top 100 universities in the world. We are left behind in terms of
knowledge and the economy, and this is very embarrassing," he said.
He was speaking at the launch of the Scientific Excellence in Islamic
Civilisation Exhibition at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre yesterday.
Abdullah, who is also the current chair of the Organisation of Islamic
Conference, said the situation could be improved if Muslim leaders changed their
mindset and undertook efforts to improve knowledge-building and the economic
condition of their nations.
The OIC has 57 member countries but more than half, or 31, are classified by the
United Nations as least-developed low-income countries.
The prime minister said Muslims in Malaysia should also strive for glory and
innovation to make Vision 2020 a success. They should emulate Islamic scholars
in the golden age of Islam, he added.
"The main goal of Islamic scientists in the past was the happiness of humankind.
That is why they lived so contentedly back then, using technology in fields like
agriculture, botany, medicine and life sciences.
"They gave full attention to all fields and, similarly, that should be our aim,"
he said.
At the event, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia conferred an honorary doctorate on
Prof Dr Fuat Sezgin, a renowned historian in the fields of science and
technology in the Muslim world.
He is largely involved with the exhibition, which is a treasure trove of
artifacts, replicas, models and collections of technology and innovation
organised by the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry and the Institute
for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University.
Eighty-three-year-old Sezgin, who is the institute’s founder and honorary
director, was delighted that a university chair for research and the teaching of
Arabic-Islamic science history would be founded in UTM.
"To my knowledge, this is going to be the first professorate dedicated to that
subject in the Islamic world. The decision to name this chair after me seems, in
my estimation, actually too great an honour," he said in his speech.
Sezgin said it was a fact that most Muslim intellectuals were still under the
influence of the historic concept of renaissance.
He said they could hardly imagine that their culture once made a significant and
creative contribution in the history of science.
"Historiography of science may seem a kind of luxury in the West, yet for the
Islamic world it is of substantial importance. The knowledge of a creative past
could inspire a sense of the potentials of the individuals and a general
self-consciousness, far removed from superficial arrogance."
The three-month-long exhibition will be held at the KLCC until Jan 14 after
which it will be moved to the National Science Centre from Jan 23 to March 31.
As part of the exhibition, the National Science Centre will be organising
various science-based activities and demonstrations.
Source: http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Tuesday/National/20070109084819/Article/local1_html