It is a fast world with 20 percent of the world’s population rich in resources both land and human. Demography is flourishing. Yet the condition is terrible. People live a life with no value, morality, and no progress forward in science, education, health care, innovation and worst of all even having the feeling of backwardness. Over the last four or five hundred years societies in this area never contributed to the fast world progress in science and technology.
This scenario depicts how the Muslim world is viewed by Muslims and the other societies alike. It is clear to everyone that such condition is the result of misuse of power and violation of the human cost. Muslim countries must blame themselves for the sorry state of the majority of Muslim states. In fact, many pathologies spread in the Muslim countries that are hardly discussed and barely addressed openly. Among these pathologies are: corruption, bad governance, intellectual stagnation, lack of science and technology and lack of expression.
The Muslim countries have the highest corruption rate in the world. And yet, they have little interest in fighting corruption and building more transparent and zero tolerance on rampant corruption that took the resources into more personal gains. This is clear in a recent world survey in corruption among 180 nations worldwide. This survey is conducted by Transparence International. In their survey of Corruption Perception Index highlighted the least corrupt nations and the worst performing in the index. Two years back, Transparence International put this information in their website:
This year [2017], New Zealand and Denmark rank highest with scores of 89 and 88 respectively. Syria, South Sudan and Somalia rank lowest with scores of 14, 12 and 9 respectively. The best performing region is Western Europe with an average score of 66. The worst performing regions are Sub-Saharan Africa (average score 32) and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (average score 34). … it is no surprise that 19 of 21 Arab states score below 50 in the [index], which captures levels of corruption in the public sector. (Transparence International, 2017).
Another major sickness that leads Muslim world left where they are now is bad governance. Communities in the majority Muslim countries show little interest in their government institutions. Let alone the government services. They see them as lip service rather than the actual and real service. In a recent survey conducted by Qatar based research center points out, “Arab public’s low approval levels of government effectiveness and general governance.” This feeling shown by countries from [Muslim], societies indicate that there is disillusionment and despair of these societies to their countries. The institutional life among these nations is totally in disarray and much of the government services are absent from the public life. This leads to another malady and a vacuum of intellectual charisma of the Muslim world, the intellectual stagnation.
The Islamic world is intellectually stagnating. Most of the Muslim scholars, thinkers, and prominent writers left their home countries with no contribution to their countries either lack of intellectual support and free practice of their intellectual potentials. This handicapped the energy of the thinkers. And worst of all, little translation and good writing is totally absent comparing to the golden age of the Islamic world, where Muslims translated a huge number of books of all major disciplines. Now the situation is worse. The whole Islamic world is in a state of intellectual stagnation. The science and technology, the pacesetter of human development, the Muslim ummah have done little credit.
In 2005 Harvard University produced more scientific papers than 17 Arabic-speaking countries combined. The Economist wrote in its science page. It true and a reality that the Muslims lag in not only in science but also technology. The attitude towards the science and technology in relatively not so good. Muslims prefer to build more fancy and luxurious seven-star hotels rather than investing science schools or building labs. A good example is the place I live, Hargeisa, Somalia. In this big city with hundreds of thousands of people, there is no single university that is devoted to science and technology. The largest university in the country, University of Hargeisa does have a single accepted invention in science let alone the technology. How true are the words of a prominent Muslim scientist and Nobel Laureate, Abdus Salam’s 20 years of observation “of all civilizations on this planet, science is weakest in the lands of Islam. The dangers of this weakness cannot be over-emphasized since the honorable survival of a society depends directly on its science and technology in the condition of the present age”.
All the roads lead to Rome. Of all major pathologies Muslims are facing now have one root cause, lack of expression. In his final article on the Washington Post, the writer’s journalistic home, Jamal Khashoggi wrote about what Arabs in particular and Muslims in general need most, free expression. In another article which Mr. Khashoggi acknowledges writes that only one Arab country, Tunisia, is classified as free country. Three other nations, Jordan, Morroco and Kuwaint are categorized as partially free states. The rest are classified as not free countries. In more critical eye, this clarifies that the majority of Arab societies are either uninformed or misinformed. Much of the situation is like people do not have their voice. They listen or watch and repeat the same news information that the state run Tvs or radios narrate. That is, they cannot address what matters to them on their lives. This is clear that a community who live under this situation will never be an active participant the ongoing progress and the explosion of the information in and around the fast world they dwell in.
In the Holy Qur’an we have this beautiful ayah, “Verily never will Allah change the condition of a people until they change it themselves.” This verse in a beautiful and eloquent manner summarizes the remedy of any pathology that may face the Muslim ummah. From corruption and bad governance, the twin and the interwoven, intellectual stagnation as a result of free expression all the way to impoverishment in science and technology, the Muslim ummah has to revise their poor performance in all these areas in light of the Qur’an and Sunnah. Where there is Islam there is a way. I don’t have better words than Mahathir Mohamad’s words “The future of Muslim societies is with Islam, for with without Islam, they have no future.”
References
Fatafta, M. (2017, February), Rampant Corruption in Arab States. Transparence International Retrieved from https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/rampant_corruption_in_arab_states
Harb, I. (2017, April), The Quandary of Bad Governance in the Arab World. Arab Center Washington Dc. Retrieved from http://arabcenterdc.org/policy_analyses/the-quandary-of-bad-governance-in-the-arab-world/
Hassan, R. (2007, August), Islamic World Faces Intellectual Stagnation. Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. Retrieved from http://muslim-science.com/islamic-world-faces-intellectual-stagnation-riaz-hassan/
Khashoggi, J. (2018, October), What the Arab World Needs Most Is Free Expression. Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/jamal-khashoggi-what-the-arab-world-needs-most-is-free-expression/
Segal, A. (1996). Why Does the Muslim World Lag in Science? Middle East Quarterly Journal, 360, 61-70.
The Holy Qur’an (Sura: Al Ra’d; Verse 11).
A Short Bio for the Author
Abdinasir Sahal, BA in English, MA in IR and Diplomacy; CEO & Founder of Hoggaamiye Consulting; Abdinasir wrote three books in Somali: Hoggaamintii Mahathir; Hoggaamiyihii Singabuur; Maanfur: Horta Ma Fekernaa?
