Formation of startups and new companies
Commercial exploitation of science, technology, and novelty
System of laws, regulations, strategies, and funding priorities
Discovery and creation of new knowledge of the natural world
Technological Advancements in the world.
By: Leif Stenberg
University of Lund
This is the unedited paper as given at the Joensuu conference. An updated and edited version has been published in Social Epistemology, x, 3/4, 1996, 273-87.
In this paper, Lief Steinberg discusses the standpoints of two prominent Muslim personalities in the debate on the Islamization of science. They are the Persian scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr and the British-Pakistani Muslim Ziauddin Sardar. Consequently, notable aims are to study statements, individuals behind statements, and presuppositions which forms their standpoints in general.
The intellectual side of the debate centers around the question: “What role can and should Islam play in science?” Another important question concerns the function of European Muslims in the debate. However, it is clear that a sub-text of the debate centers around the question: “What ‘political’ course should Muslims pursue - a form of modernism, Islamism, or any other possible alternative?”.
In my thesis-project entitled “Four Muslim Voices. An analysis of a discourse concerning the Islamization of science” I make an analysis of a contemporary debate concerning the Islamization of science. Consequently, notable aims of the project in general are to study statements, individuals behind statements, and presuppositions which forms their standpoints.
In order to follow the ritual of scientific work I consider it appropriate to display a foundation for my own outlook. Accordingly, one significant presuppositon for my outlook is linked to a secular tradition of studying religion. In general, it implies to view religion as a part of society and culture, i.e. religion as a social phenomenon, and not society as a part of a transcendent religion, i.e. society as a religious phenomenon.
In the European and North American Muslim context a group of Muslim intellectuals has developed. Some of them are able to be active in both a Muslim and a non-Muslim environment. One example is Seyyed Hossein Nasr, a University professor in Islamic studies at the George Washington University in Washington DC, and at the same time an active exponent of a specific interpretation of the Islamic tradition. Another example is the British-Pakistani Muslim Ziauddin Sardar who has a written extensively on the relation between Islam and science for a Muslim audience, but who also takes part in conferences concerning non-religious subjects. A general notion in the works of Nasr and Sardar is their understanding of Islam as a comprehensive order for the individual and society. Therefore, they strive to achieve a foundation for the establishment of an Islamic science.
By: Frank Lehner
Published in Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy on 30 August 2011.
The idea of generating solar energy on a large scale in the sun-intensive countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to satisfy their own increasing energy demand and to export surplus energy to Europe as advocated in the DESERTEC concept1 has publicly received much attention in some countries, particularly in Germany, Morocco, Tunisia, and also substantial support from their governments. Besides the DESERTEC Foundation, an industrial consortium (Dii GmbH) was founded in 2009 which consists of major European and MENA companies to push this project further b...
By: Austin Dacey
Published on 21 July 2011 in SciDev.Net
Egypt’s ‘science city’ will not build a science culture without its people empowered by academic experience abroad, argues Austin Dacey.
There was a big day for ‘big science’ in Egypt last month. On 1 June the Egyptian cabinet approved a budget that increased spending on science by almost one third, from US$66.5 million to US$90.5 million, and pledged to create up to 50,000 new research jobs.
The same day saw the cabinet approve the long-discussed Zewail City of Science and Technology, named after Ahmed Zewail, the Egyptian-born Nobel laureate, a professor at the California Ins...
By: Steve Paulson
Published in Chronicle of Higher Education on June 19, 2011
We may think the charged relationship between science and religion is mainly a problem for Christian fundamentalists, but modern science is also under fire in the Muslim world. Islamic creationist movements are gaining momentum, and growing numbers of Muslims now look to the Quran itself for revelations about science.
Science in Muslim societies already lags far behind the scientific achievements of the West, but what adds a fair amount of contemporary angst is that Islamic civilization was once the unrivaled center of science and philosophy. What’s more, Islam’s “gol...
By: Dr. Farouk El-Baz
Published in ScienceProgress.org on Monday, March 28th, 2011
Science Diplomacy: Science and Technology Attaches Can Help Deepen Ties and Promote Stability
This is the second in our series of contributions on the topic of science diplomacy. Dr. Farouk El-Baz believes that reviving the science attaché program can overcome barriers to collaboration with the Middle East and help bring about change while furthering U.S. diplomatic interests.
The recent turmoil in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and even the conflict in Libya should remind Americans that even under the most repressive, authoritarian regimes, the fundamental freedoms we have long treasur...
The Islamic world’s current science effort is on life support and without major ‘surgery’ could be yet another policy failure, says Athar Osama.
In 2007, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) created the Science, Technology and Innovation Organisation (STIO) to jumpstart science cooperation among its 57 member countries. Three years later, a founding meeting approved an annual budget of US$70 million, with four founding members — Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and and Syria — committing US$5 million each to the budget.
To date, 20 countries have joined STIO — but none has honoured its financial commitment, according to the organisatio...
By Zakri Abdul Hamid –
Science Adviser to the Prime Minister of Malaysia
For Malaysia, the past three decades have been a period of rapid and sustained growth. Measuring growth with the traditional Gross Domestic Product yardstick, Malaysia’s economy has increased more than a hundredfold. Over the past four decades, we have averaged nearly 7% annual growth. Poverty rates have fallen from 49%, to less than 4%. Per-capita GDP has risen from US$370, to more than US$9,000.
This growth has been matched by a fundamental change in the structure of our economy. Like many Asian countries, we have moved from a basis of agriculture and raw commodities to a multi-sector eco...
By: Dr. Athar Osama
Muslim-Science.Com met with Tan Sri Dr. Omar Abdur Rahman, Mahathir’s Science Advisor for over a decade and half and, the “prime mover” behind Mahathir Mohammed’s vision of a Knowledge-driven Malaysia. A deeply humble man, Tan Sri Omar insists that Mahathir was a science policymaker par excellence in his own right and that he would hardly have needed a science advisor. However, he played a critical role in providing scientific credibility to Mahathir’s plans and helping the Prime Minister reach out to the scientific community to build support for his policies.
As Malaysia’s first and longest serving Science Advisor – a position t...
