The Re-emergence of Islamic Enlightenment — Page 44
44 a modern-day picture of science in the Muslim world that is completely at odds with its illustrious past. For example, he notes that there have only ever been two scientists from Muslim countries who have won the Nobel Prize, despite the fact there are approximately 1. 6 billion Muslims in the world. Another stark statistic he presents is that 46 Muslim countries combined contributed just one percent of the world’s scientific literature. In a similar vein, he states that in 1989, the United States published over 10,000 scientific papers that were frequently cited, whilst in the entire Arab world just four commonly cited papers were published in the same period. He also notes how between 1980 and 2000, just one country, South Korea, granted over 16,000 intellectual patents, whilst nine Arab countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE granted a combined total of just 370. The article also quotes the Nobel Laureate, Professor Steven Weinberg, speaking about the dearth of scientific material originating from Muslim countries. Professor Weinberg states: “Though there are talented scientists of Muslim origin working productively in the West, for forty years I have not seen a single paper by a physicist or astronomer working in a Muslim country that was worth reading. ” 13 Thus, in intellectual and scientific terms, Muslims and the Islamic nations have gone from leading the world, to being treated with scorn and derision. At this time of intellectual