Muslims Are 1.5 Billion,

But Never Were More Powerless

By Maqbool Ahmed Siraj

 Islamic Voice Magazine, January 4, 2010      

                                                  

Pew Global Survey of Muslims: The Ummah is 1.56 bn. Strong
Washington D. C.:

A comprehensive demographic study of more than 200 countries finds that
there are 1.57 billion Muslims of all ages living in the world today,
representing 23 per cent of an estimated 6.8 billion people who inhabit
this globe in 2009.
                                                      

Taking pride in numbers is often the pet pastime of Muslims. For all
such passionate believers in numbers, the Pew Forum's survey of Muslim
population would make a great reading. The survey has pegged the number
of Muslims around the globe at 1.56 billion or 23 per cent of the people
inhabiting this planet.

Fancy for numbers even propels some of us to exaggerate the size of the
community and even suspect under-enumeration or suppression of real
figures by authorities. Some even feel flattered by
catchphrases?propagated even by the official American literature?like
'fastest growing religion in the US'. These naïve believers lose sight
of the fact that growth of Muslims in US has got more to do with
procreative proclivities and immigrations rather than just conversions.
All this talk about conversions to Islam in the West is much baloney and
self-delusion rather than factual.

More enlightened guesses suggest that scores of youth with Muslim names
in American universities say that their parents used to be Muslims on
being asked if they are Muslims. American mathematician Dr. Jeffrey Lang
in his latest book painfully admits that youths of Muslim parentage are
being driven away from the faith because the Islam propagated by these
so called dawah group is 'retrogressive, stagnant, patriarchal remnant
of a lagging culture, mired in meaningless controversies and hollow and
lifeless formalism'. (Ref. Losing my religion: A Call for help by Amana
Publications).

He says that mass numbers of descendents of Muslims,
converts, and spiritual seekers are forsaking the American Islamic
community and fears that many of these will inevitably abandon the
religion. Yet the popular refrain across the world is that 'Americans
are turning to Islam en masse' and in their fondness for religious
sensationalism some even forcibly drag Neil Armstrong and Michael
Jackson into the fold of Islam. The fact is that some in the West are in
quest of spiritual solace and definitely turn to Islam fascinated by the
images of neat rows of namazis praying in solitude of mosques or the
spirit of renunciation visible through Hajj pilgrimage. But for the
majority of the enlightened citizens of the world, Muslim world holds no
charm. We need to ask why?

The exodus of creative genius from the Muslim societies (from Muslim
countries as well as from societies where Muslims are in a minority)
towards the West provides a partial answer to such queries. Restrictive
social and political environment drives away the learned, the
intellectuals and the scholars to where they find a vent for their
knowledge and skills. Ask a group of 100 post graduate students anywhere
in the Muslim world as to which country they would choose to migrate if
the option is between the USA and Saudi Arabia. Chances are that 85 per
cent would opt for the US. Why? Because the deficits in knowledge,
freedom and women's empowerment in the Arab world (and more or less all
over the Muslim world) does not enthuse a pursuer of knowledge, lover of
freedom and believer in gender equity. Education in the Islamic world
suppresses questioning, independent thinking and self-confidence leading
to passive attitudes. No wonder then why life in Muslim countries is
morose.

Consequently, we have some of the most ignorant, illiterate and
uncreative societies around us. No major invention has emerged from the
Muslim world for the last five centuries. In numerical terms, 41
predominantly Muslim countries with about 20 per cent of the world's
total population generate less than 5 per cent of its science output,
going by the proportion of citations of articles published in
international science journals. A study by academics at the
International Islamic University Malaysia showed that OIC countries have
8.5 scientists, engineers, and technicians per 1,000 population,
compared with a world average of 40.7, and 139.3 for countries of the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (For more on the
OECD, see http://www.oecd.org.) On average, the 57 OIC states spend an
estimated 0.3 per cent of their gross national product on research and
development, which is far below the global average of 2.4 per cent. Yet
another determining factor for diffusion of knowledge is the number of
available scientists, engineers, and technicians. Those numbers are low
for OIC countries, averaging around 400/500 per million people, while
developed countries typically lie in the range of 3500/5000 per million.

Forty-six Muslim countries contributed 1.17 per cent of the world's
science literature, whereas 1.66 per cent came from India alone and 1.48
per cent from Spain. Twenty Arab countries contributed 0.55 per cent
compared with 0.89 per cent by Israel alone. The US NSF records that of
the 28 lowest producers of scientific articles in 2003, half belong to
the OIC. According to the Pakistan Council for Science and Technology,
Pakistani researchers have registered just eight international patents
in the past 43 years. In 2004, high-tech exports ? mostly software ?
amounted to just one per cent of total exports from our neighbouring
country.

Talk about science, education and research, one perforce looks at the
Arab, because it is they who have money and resources to spare on such
pursuits. But Arabs have proved themselves the worst (or best) laggards,
coming even behind Turks, Iranians, Pakistanis, Malaysians and
Indonesian. The Arab world has less than 53 newspapers per 1,000 Arab
citizens compared to 285 papers per 1,000 for developed countries. Arabs
have 18 computers per 1,000 persons against global average 78 for 1,000.
Translation is considered to be the most important channel of diffusion
of knowledge. On average, only 4.4 translated books per million people
were published in the between 1980-85 in the Arab world, while the
corresponding rate in Hungary (not a very enlightened society by current
standards) was 519 books and with regard to Spain it was 920 books. The
number of scientists and engineers working in R&D in Arab countries is
not more than 371 per million citizens while the global ratio is 979 per
million. Arabs constitute 5 per cent of the world population but produce
only 1.1 per cent of the books, most of which is religious literature.
The production of literary and artistic books in Arab countries is lower
than the general level. In 1996, it did not exceed 1,945 books,
representing only 0.8 per cent of world production, i.e., less than the
production of a country such as Turkey, with a population one quarter of
that of Arab countries.

The 57 OIC countries together have 1,800 universities. But no university
makes the top-500 ranking compiled by Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In
most universities, film, drama and music are frowned upon. Pervez
Hoodbhoy, a teacher of physics at the Quaid e Azam University in
Islamabad, says, the campus has four mosques but no bookstore.

Quantitative growth of the ummah holds no key to its weight, esteem and
prosperity. Minuscule communities/nations such as Jews, Parsis and
Koreans have contributed to the humanity and gained respect than an
impoverished, uncreative and weightless Muslim multitudes.