http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=96609&d=25&m=5&y=2007&pix=opinion.jpg&category=Opinion
Friday, 25, May, 2007 (08, Jumada al-Ula, 1428)
Struggle for a Muslim Renaissance
Tanvir Ahmad Khan, Arab News
Addressing the World Economic Forum on the Middle East (WEF) a few days
back, Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, the vice president and prime
minister of UAE, unveiled plans for the establishment this year of a foundation
to build a knowledge-based society in the region. To be launched with a $10
billion endowment, this initiative is an important addition to efforts being
made by diverse Muslim countries to close the knowledge gap.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, Muslim analysts have endlessly
repeated a litany of causes that led to the decline of their great civilization
that once pioneered modern learning. At the heart of this analysis was
recognition that the spirit of inquiry ebbed away as their centers of
intellectual excellence were destroyed by the vengeful Christian reconquest of
Spain and the Mongol invasion of the Arab heartland. Elsewhere, as in the
unrelated but similar rejection of modern printing technology by the Ottomans
in the heart of the Caliphate and the Mogul emperors in India, dissemination of
knowledge beyond the elite was considered suspect.
The causes of intellectual stagnation have been understood for decades
but Muslim states have found themselves hamstrung by their own lack of resolve
or foreign interventions to bring about the much-awaited renaissance. The
immense creative ferment in the Arab world that got a fillip with Napoleon's
arrival was frequently stymied by the internal antagonisms of political
ideologies inspired by the encounter with the West. More recently, Israel was
often able to deal heavy blows to Arab regeneration. The destruction of Iraq
has shattered the basic organization of knowledge in one of the best-educated
Arab societies.
Several non-Arab Muslim countries have been battling with their own
constraints in creating knowledge-based societies. Pakistan has successfully
produced an intellectual elite but its ability to hold it has been compromised
by the narrow band in which state patronage has been available so far. Since it
was perceived as an existential compulsion, nuclear technology made astonishing
progress and acquired a self-sustaining momentum. In many other fields,
Pakistan continues to face brain drain as the state is not a universally modern
entity providing equal opportunities for the development of sectors not
immediately related to its overriding security concerns. It is only now that
the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan is awakening to the need of
upgrading scientific research across the board. For a heterogeneous society
where religious, ethnic and linguistic diversity demands an exceptionally
capable organization of research in social sciences, Pakistan has been
relatively slow to invest resources in it.
Turkey is far ahead of Pakistan in mass literacy and while visiting
Turkey, one is struck by individual brilliance in its intellectual class. But
it is doubtful if the linear and rather inflexible Kemalist state is as yet
keen to let this brilliance become the beacon of a renaissance in the Muslim
world. Iran has a long tradition of respecting knowledge and its universities
are crowded today with ardent students, half of them women. But again the
internal and external insecurity of the regime impinges upon academic freedoms.
As in Iraq, its scientific elite attracts hostility from outside powers.
Higher education and training in the Arab-Islamic world must aim at
telescoping decades of progress into a relatively short period of time. The key
areas are science and technology, social sciences, management and strategic
studies. A generous provision of funds needs to be matched with a resolve to
create a national and regional framework of objectives. The West is not likely
to render much help in fostering a sovereignty of knowledge unless the regional
states display an ability to grasp it. For several years now, the dominant
world powers have been establishing institutions and forums that would enable
them to appropriate resources of the Arab-Islamic countries to their purposes.
This is particularly noticeable in the fields of economy, media and strategic
thinking.
If it is a truly global village, the Muslim states should feel free to
interact with whatever source invests their efforts with substance and value.
It may not be fashionable to talk of pan-Arabism in a political sense but there
is still a strong case for close networking by Arab centers of learning and
research. The Organization of Islamic Conference does not make much impact on
the political fortunes of member states but still provides forums for a second
concentric ring of intellectual interaction. Pakistan, Turkey and Malaysia have
the capacity to make a significant contribution to the planned renaissance.
There are unprecedented opportunities to balance traditional ties with the West
with links with new sources of knowledge and expertise. Dubai's noble example
to focus on human resource development has to be emulated by all Muslim states.
They must also plan that development with full awareness of the great
complexity of our times.
- Tanvir Ahmad Khan is a former foreign secretary and ambassador of
Pakistan
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