Ehsan Masood's opening question, "Does Islam's vibrant scientific past hold the key to its intellectual future?" misses the entire point (1 April, p 53). The attempt to equate a period of scientific development with one of social achievement shows a lack of intellectual rigour.
The Third Reich, or Nazi Germany, had a blossoming of scientific development for the same reasons that states controlled by sharia law were able to do the same - namely to have social stability and funding for scientists. Unfortunately both achievements were gained at the expense of slavery and aggression. The great failing of Islam was not its failing to continue its achievments in science, but rather that Islam did not follow through with an enlightenment or similar social development.
The final question of "If Islam inspired great learning in the past, why not now?" is problematic. It appears that in the past Islam funded technical progress but did not inspire intellectual progress, and this remains true. Islamic societies are running this experiment all across the world, with different settings and many natural resources, and in none of them have they achieved a prosperous, free self sufficiency. So maybe the question should be, "If Islam was not able to flourish intellectually in the past, why expect it to now?"
The Third Reich, or Nazi Germany, had a blossoming of scientific development for the same reasons that states controlled by sharia law were able to do the same - namely to have social stability and funding for scientists. Unfortunately both achievements were gained at the expense of slavery and aggression. The great failing of Islam was not its failing to continue its achievments in science, but rather that Islam did not follow through with an enlightenment or similar social development.
The final question of "If Islam inspired great learning in the past, why not now?" is problematic. It appears that in the past Islam funded technical progress but did not inspire intellectual progress, and this remains true. Islamic societies are running this experiment all across the world, with different settings and many natural resources, and in none of them have they achieved a prosperous, free self sufficiency. So maybe the question should be, "If Islam was not able to flourish intellectually in the past, why expect it to now?"
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