Education holds the key to Muslims’ Development

Edited from article that appeared in Hindu (21-Dec-2008) by Mahmood bin Muhammad

Over the past 105 years, 14 million Jews have bagged 15 dozen Nobel Prizes while only three Nobel Prizes have been won by 1.4 billion Muslims (other than Peace Prizes). The “most influential scientist of all time” Albert Einstein and Time Magazine’s “Person of the Century” and father of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud were Jews. So was Karl Marx. Madeline Albright, Noam Chomsky and William James Sidis, with an IQ of 250-300, “the brightest human who ever existed,” are some of those of the Jewish faith. How and Why?

The most beneficient philanthropist in the history of the world is George Soros, a Jew, who has so far donated a colossal 4 billion dollars, most of which has gone as aid to scientists and universities around the world. Second to George Soros is Walter Annemberg, another Jew, who has built a hundred libraries donating an estimated 2 billion dollars. In the media, the famous Jews include Wolf Blitzer (CNN), Barbara Walters (ABC News), Eugene Meyer (Washington Post), Henry Grunwald (editor-in-chief, Time), Katherine Graham (publisher of Washington Post) and Joseph Lelyyeld (ex-editor, New York Times). In sharp contrast, every fifth human being is a Muslim. For every single Hindu, there are two Muslims and for every Jew there are one hundred Muslims. But still why we are not contributing to the betterment of the world!

One answer that comes to the mind is “education.” Though there might be many reasons for it like, moral degradation, lack of confidence, dejection of community, free will to think rather than being guided purely by others on matters ranging from culture to religion, giving up rationality and ‘ijtehad’ and so on so forth.

 

 

Reasons for the plight

According to UNDP data, literacy in the Christian world stands at 90 per cent and 15 Christian majority States has a literacy rate of 100 per cent. Muslim majority States, as a sharp contrast, have an average literacy rate of 40 per cent and there is no Muslim majority State with literacy rate of 100 per cent. Some 98 per cent of literates in the Christian world had completed primary school, while less than 50 per cent of the literates in the Muslim world did the same. Around 40 per cent of the literates in the Christian world attended university while no more than 2 per cent of the literates in the Muslim world did the same.

Muslim majority countries have 230 scientists for one million Muslims whereas the U.S. has 4,000 scientists per million and the Japanese 5,000 per million. In the entire Arab world, there are 35,000 full-time researchers and 50 technicians per million Arabs whereas in the Christian world there are 10,000 technicians per million. The Muslim world spends a meagre 0.2 per cent of its GDP on Research & Development while the Christian world spends 5 per cent of the GDP on R & D. The conclusion is that the Muslim world lacks the capacity to produce, diffuse and apply knowledge, and the only source of knowledge is research.

 

Research is the key

Allah’s very first command in the Koran is to acquire knowledge and to cultivate the scientific temper. Allah has given all human beings the capacity not only to explore and use material knowledge but also gain spiritual knowledge. The Koran attaches great importance to “reflection as a means of gaining insight.” The constant prayer of every person has, therefore, to be: “My Lord, increase me in knowledge.” (20:114).The scenario in India, which has the largest Muslim minority and the second largest Muslim population in the world, is a replica of the world situation, but the biggest reason for Muslim educational backwardness here, as affirmed by the National Commission for Minorities, is “the gradual dilution and suppression of the rights guaranteed under the Constitution.” The Sachar Committee has also highlighted the sad plight of Muslims.

If the attitude of the majority community, post-Independence has created a “siege mentality” among Muslims, the “crisis of non-implementation” of promises and programmes announced over the years is attributed to an unconcealed “political hypocrisy” of all ruling parties. If the Muslims realise that Islam is not just a pillow to rest upon but a belt to be girdled, so that they are in a better position to strive for excellence in a competitive society, no power on earth can stop them from reaching for the stars! Our own A.P.J. Abdul Kalam have shown the way.