Today I attended a discussion sponsored by the National Academies and the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Center for Science, Technology, and Security Policy (
http://cstsp.aaas.org/) about the ability of science and technology to transform the Muslim world. The talk, "Sustainable Development in the Muslim World Needs Excellence in Science and Technology," was given by Dr. Reza Mansouri, Professor of Physics, Sharif University of Technology. Dr. Mansouri was also Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Science Research and Technology for four years. One of his major points of the afternoon was that the Muslim world does not understand the modern notion of science and technology, and history plays a large part in that. I will discuss his other major points about the transformative nature of learning, especially science, below.
Dr. Mansouri started the talk by first describing the current state of the Muslim world: 20% of the world population but the combined GDP of all those countries is less than France's. The total literacy rate hovers around 50%; however, this varies widely throughout the region (and by gender). The science output, as measured by science publications, is 2% of the total world output. In Iran, literacy rates are higher, and women are well represented in the various schools. Over 30,000 new book titles are published each year, which is actually close to what Canada publishes. He gave the URL for the Iranian Children's Book Club (www.cbc.ir) if any one is interested in checking it out.
Scientific papers published by Iranian scientists have increased significantly in the past 30 years from 300/year after the Revolution to almost 6,000/year today. Iran is one of the few Muslim countries in which manuscript numbers are increasing. For example, Turkey and Egypt's output has remained the same for almost 15 years, and is dramatically lower than Iran. Iranian scientists have also increased contact with international scientists with collaborators in numerous other countries (US, Canada, and the UK top the list). Also the quality of Iranian science, as measured by Impact Factor, has increased dramatically in most fields, with Chemistry the one notable exception (which was odd, because they publish more articles on Chemistry than any other subject). Iran is way behind other countries in patents. Most countries average 1 patent per 14-16 published papers, while in Iran, it is less than 1 in 100 published papers.
He said that the educational systems need reform in the Muslim world. Critical thinking skills are not taught, but rote learning is stressed (he feels this is linked to traditional religious learning in which memorization of large sections of religious texts is the ideal). For example, science is seen as information in books, not as something learned by doing (I might add, we have this problem in the US as well...people think textbooks are the key to learning science, and this simply is not true). Many simply do not understand that science is a process. Books provide general knowledge, but books in themselves do not lead to new innovative thought. You have to do something new or think about something in a novel way. These critical thinking skills are not found in the pages of books.
No school in the Muslim world is on the top 500 international university lists. He feels the Muslims world is slowly recognizing this problem, but not adapting fast enough because of the huge population boom on the horizon. He used an example of the current differences between India and Pakistan as an example. While still under English rule (and one country), the Hindus supported the building of English schools and adapted to that concept of learning and teaching. The mullahs in what is now Pakistan refused and issued proclamations that no Muslims would be allowed to attend English schools. He feels this early acceptance to modern learning techniques and philosophies in India was a key to the technology success of India. Many areas of Pakistan are still reliant upon madrassahs for basic education. Obviously, it isn't that simple, but there may be something to his ideas.
So why has this happened? Why, with over 200 years of contact with Western science has the Muslim world not adapted? He said it was because science is subordinate to theology. Not that God trumps all things Scientific, but the way people approach problems and think is more like in line with religious ways (like the rote learning example above). Rationality is not based on science, but religion. All things in life in the Muslim world are dictated by religion, to an extent that many Americans just simply don't understand.
The anti-rationality in the Muslim world increased in the 15th and 16th Centuries after several centuries of Muslim scientific enlightenment. Theology supplanted science in many of the major schools and institutions at this time. Philosophy was reduced to religious ethics as science became subordinated to rigid theology. This change resulted in a large period of what Dr. Mansouri described as "ignorance" from the 16th to 19th Centuries. This doesn't mean significant advances were not accomplished, it means that in the general population the overall level of knowledge and scientific ability decreased dramatically. Many skills and trades that were common in the 13th-14th Centuries were becoming rare. He had a quote from Faz-ol-lan Rouzzbehaan that said, "Shiekh-of-Islam has to be careful not to allow anyone to be taught (science, philosophy)." During this time, there was an active effort to limit learning beyond certain circles. Over a period of two hundred years, this had a dramatic effect on the population.
By the beginning of the 20th Century it became clear to the leaders of Iran that they were missing a large range of knowledge from medicine to engineering. Tehran started building new infrastructure to combat this lack of knowledge, but the scientific traditions were not present to support this effort.
To reverse this, he really feels that the Muslim must reach out to other scientists to help build a true scientific community in the Muslim world. This obviously will help with transparency issues. He feels science is very progressive in nature; therefore, it can be a driving force to reform the Muslim world. Iran now has over 500 new "techno-parks" and "science incubators" to spur investment in science and technology.
The question and answer session was very enlightening. One individual asked about recent statements from the Iranian president about "purging the universities of liberal influence." Dr. Mansouri said that the president's statements are generally played over and over in the Western world, but in Iran it takes weeks for them to hear about it, and then they are quickly forgotten. He said these kinds of statements rarely affect Iranians' lives directly. Basically, it sounded as if it was just all a show that the Iranians were in on, but the Western world falls for every time. I don't know if that is a true statement, but I can understand his thinking. Does everything Bush say accurately reflect my viewpoint? Or even the majority of the country. It sounds as if our media imbues more significance into Ahmadinejad's statements than he receives in his own country.