How the Islamic world can reclaim its role in science

穆斯林多数国家面临科学危机。Naeem Khan说，正在采取两个关键领域的步骤来解决它。

It is no secret that Muslim-majority countries have lagged behind much of the world in scientific and technological progress for far too long. On average, they spend less than 0.5 per cent of their GDP (gross domestic product) on research and development, compared with five times that in developed economies.

取得了重要的进步。在过去的十年左右的时间里，几个OIC（伊斯兰合作组织）在教育和科学基础设施方面进行了重大投资。

But this is still far too little.

Three years ago, the OIC, which I help lead, partnered with the Royal Society to conduct the first major analysis of the science deficit facing the Islamic world. Thereportfound that OIC countries account for just 2.4 per cent of global research expenditure, 1.6 per cent of patents and 6 per cent of scientific publications, despite holding nearly a quarter of the world’s population.

这对此的社会，经济和安全含义令人震惊。这意味着穆斯林世界对核心科学和技术工具的投入不足，无法为新兴的气候变化，水稀缺性和粮食不安全的威胁而产生解决方案。几项研究还表明，冲突爆发与气候变化如何影响干旱与食品价格之间有联系。

“Enhancing the quality and quantity of scientific educational resources available to young people will help to rapidly spread a culture of innovation and inquiry across the Islamic world.”

Naeem Khan

这就是为什么本周（9月10日至11日），伊斯兰会议组织举行了第一个Science and Technology Summit, with heads of state and government ministers from 56 Muslim nations.

The summit was designed to tackle the science deficit by focusing on two key areas.

Consensus on S&T support

The first focus was to generate a consensus among the OIC’s 57 member-states on proposals to be adopted that support science and technology. This was done successfully at the summit across a range of areas including energy, research spending, education and health.

Key proposals adopted by member states included doubling the number of global scientific publications and patents coming out of the Islamic world within the next ten years; doubling the number of scientific workers per million people; and increasing, by 10 per cent, the share of high-technology goods and services in the economies and trade activities of member states.

Ensuring this happens, and delivering on these targets, will require financial investment from member states to ensure they are able to develop the required knowledge and expertise.

Policy discussions at the summit also focused on how to improve the lives of citizens in OIC countries. On health, for instance, the OIC urged governments to raise health spending to a minimum of 10 per cent of national budgets. Policy proposals also called for universal access to education for both men and women.

Also adopted were proposals for the creation of high-technology infrastructures so Muslim countries can move into big science programmes. That includes a Center for Space Technologies that may lead to an Inter-Islamic Space Agency. It also includes proposals to connect all 57 OIC member states through a secure, high-speed intra-OIC network, and for individual member states to create national gene banks for the conservation and exchange of plant genetic resources with research centres.

A cultural approach

但是，解决伊斯兰世界的科学赤字也需要一种更深入，更文化的方法，这种方法促进了知情辩论和批判性询问的价值，这对于建立未来的知识经济至关重要。这是重点的第二个领域。

National policies and investment in science will once again play an important role in achieving this.

Enhancing the quality and quantity of scientific educational resources available to young people will help to rapidly spread a culture of innovation and inquiry across the Islamic world.

Proposals discussed and adopted at the summit — to build new technology parks alongside major OIC universities, for example — will also contribute to this by creating links between centres of learning, industry and business.

However, let’s not forget that the Muslim world does not need to create a new culture of scientific enquiry — it always had one. It just needs to revive it. Part of our inspiration for organising the Islamic world’s first collective science and technology summit was Islam’s own ‘golden age’ of science.

从历史上看，科学探究，自由和开放的探索和思想的表达与真正的伊斯兰教义之间没有冲突。这就是为什么科学在过去的伊斯兰文明下蓬勃发展的原因，以及为什么科学领域（如天文学，农业，医学，园艺，海洋学，物理，数学和化学）被穆斯林彻底改变或开创了。beplay下载官网西西软件

It is also why it is so fitting that member states adopted theAstana Declaration, which calls on “all Muslim world countries to strengthen the culture of education and science, especially for youth and women as a means of enhancing social and economic modernization and socio-economic progress.”

Rather than seeing science as an alien doctrine that threatens Islamic traditions, the Islamic world must re-orient its perspective by reclaiming its role in science。

Naeem Khan is assistant secretary general of the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) and former ambassador of Pakistan to Saudi Arabia.