The specific information below has been cherry picked by various concerns,
particularly right wing Israeli.
*/The world's
1.6 billion Muslims have produced only two Nobel laureates in chemistry and
physics. Both moved to the West: the only living one, the chemist Ahmed
Hassan Zewail, is at the California Institute of Technology. By contrast
Jews, outnumbered 100 to one by Muslims, have won 79./*/
/
On the surface, it appears proof that Muslims, or Islam if you will, just can't
possibly compare scholastically, intellectually, or technically. I find this
selective fact gathering misguided. Jews have always excelled, and why not?
They are a very accomplished people. But the facts are being presented through
one lens.
If one goes by individual Nobels given out, the numbers and/or frequency
change, percentage-wise. When teams of mostly white males share in an award,
and half are for economics--that catagory even Nobel found unworthy of greatest
achievement like the 1st 4 categories; many arrive there because of joint
effort. But to work as an individual, especially when out of an Islamic
country, the achievement is far more miraculous, in most cases. If one takes
the number of peace prizes issued, the percentage for Muslims goes up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_by_country
This came up recently with a rather right-wing Israeli friend recently. Same
factoids, practically a la Jihad Watch. I didn't like the tone, so I checked
the Nobel numbers and found them rather in favour of white men, first off.
Women and African Americans score poorly. Huh? How can that be? Greece, only
two wins??? Then, I compared countries, where Israel doesn't do nearly as well
as you'd presume. Israel,10, compared with one Muslim country, Egypt at 4.
Countries Israel wouldn't dare to insult often don't have a single win. My
findings were in sync with my gut reaction--the factoids are biased and
fear-based. I answered our friend:
If we are to look at this list, Brazil, also a poor oppressed nation,
has only won a Nobel once,*African Americans, 14X, and women 14 X.
Do you consider Brazilians and all earthly women fail to contribute
to the world? Of course not*! Yet, you allow your fears to stress the
intellectual inferiority of Islamic people as a whole. Shame their
leaders, not the poor disadvantaged people who are only offered one
type of book to learn from.
Nobels are a tough, competitive game, and*84% of the laureates are
predictably white males*. Some should not have been awarded: one I
recall because of cheating--that of the discovery of DNA's double
helix in '62. A nun, Rosalind Franklin actually did all of the
ground work on it, but her supervisor allowed Francis Crick and John
Watson from another lab to take a look at her papers when she was
absent. They published her findings with barely an acknowledgement
of her work, stole the prize, and everyone knew it.
While numbers of white men winning are high, many are multiple team players
for three
of the 5 categories. It also seems that almost half of the awards
are being given out to teams of undeserving economists these days.
Quote me on the undeserving part. Friedman up to derivatives spin
doctors to the last two idiots who got one for proving people's
spending/buying habits, calling it stable allocations. They are
unworthy of an award for excellence, which is in part why those
awards for economics are separate from the other categories.
Useless, mostly destructive in their professions and clueless about
how life works. Numbers of Nobels is poor yard stick to go by. Going
by actual individual awards, which is about 800, the numbers shift
to a different set of wins. The above statement is also incorrect.
There have been 10 Nobels issued to known Muslims; one for physics,
one for chemistry, others for peace and literature.
*My apologies to the few good economists on the list.*
*Natalia*
On 27/01/2013 12:49 PM, michael gurstein wrote:
Interesting article...
M
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
Of Dewayne Hendricks
Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2013 12:39 PM
To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Islam and science: The road to renewal
Islam and science: The road to renewal
After centuries of stagnation science is making a comeback in the Islamic
world Jan 26th 2013
<http://www.economist.com/news/international/21570677-after-centuries-stagna
tion-science-making-comeback-islamic-world-road>
THE sleep has been long and deep. In 2005 Harvard University produced more
scientific papers than 17 Arabic-speaking countries combined. The world's
1.6 billion Muslims have produced only two Nobel laureates in chemistry and
physics. Both moved to the West: the only living one, the chemist Ahmed
Hassan Zewail, is at the California Institute of Technology. By contrast
Jews, outnumbered 100 to one by Muslims, have won 79. The 57 countries in
the Organisation of the Islamic Conference spend a puny 0.81% of GDP on
research and development, about a third of the world average. America, which
has the world's biggest science budget, spends 2.9%; Israel lavishes 4.4%.
Many blame Islam's supposed innate hostility to science. Some universities
seem keener on prayer than study. Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, for
example, has three mosques on campus, with a fourth planned, but no
bookshop. Rote learning rather than critical thinking is the hallmark of
higher education in many countries. The Saudi government supports books for
Islamic schools such as "The Unchallengeable Miracles of the Qur'an: The
Facts That Can't Be Denied By Science" suggesting an inherent conflict
between belief and reason.
Many universities are timid about courses that touch even tangentially on
politics or look at religion from a non-devotional standpoint. Pervez
Hoodbhoy, a renowned Pakistani nuclear scientist, introduced a course on
science and world affairs, including Islam's relationship with science, at
the Lahore University of Management Sciences, one of the country's most
progressive universities. Students were keen, but Mr Hoodbhoy's contract was
not renewed when it ran out in December; for no proper reason, he says. (The
university insists that the decision had nothing to do with the course
content.)
But look more closely and two things are clear. A Muslim scientific
awakening is under way. And the roots of scientific backwardness lie not
with religious leaders, but with secular rulers, who are as stingy with cash
as they are lavish with controls over independent thought.
[snip]
Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: <http://www.warpspeed.com/wordpress>
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