asianindian

True.

Yes, it is all about quick money. Muslims are becoming materialistic too.

Muslims do not realize that progress can not be bought. Progress has to be planted, developed, and nurtured. And progress requires a good intention with minimal thought of impact on self.

Serial-thinker

It is because Muslims are too narrcisstic. Other cultures have a common bond, to help their own people. Muslims are only concerned about themselves, not their community.

Technology and patents require a brilliant mind combined with selflessness or a business acumen and a lot of patience.

I dont believe that the Muslims of today have that. They want quick money, quick fixes and are becoming to capitalistic. We, as Muslims arent raised to think how to become curious about how things work. Even worse, we arent taught to think about how we can help others with our knowledge or skills.

I just lived in Pakistan and I wish I knew how to combat a lot of the problems there. I just wasnt raised to think HOW to make solar panels or clean water. What a waste of a mind.

asianindian

The challenge today for Muslims is not geographic but cultural. A challenge of assimilating the good of the western nations, and keeping the bad away.

runner_forever

In the past, the physical expansion of imperial boundaries may well have been a factor that could have contributed to the advancement of Islamic or Western science. I think that scientific progress today, however, would require something other than the need to develop the technology (?new tools?) to physically expand a political boundary. In my mind, ?pushing boundaries? (the term as applied to the modern world) does not mean literally enlarging geographic expanse but rather integrating globally. Global integration involves such values or priorities as development of world-renowned universities and openness to foreign scientists and graduate students, fair and merit-based admission standards to higher education institutions, strategic alliance with foreign educational and research institutions, tolerance of other cultures, freedom of expression, free exchange of information, scientific career opportunities for youth, intellectual property rights, acceptance of the scientific method of inquiry, development of critical analysis and independent thought in the wider culture, sociopolitical structure immune from dogmatic or scientifically illiterate clerics apathetic to scientific progress, and so on.

Because the Muslim world today is poorly integrated with the international scientific community, Muslims must enlarge their boundaries of global integration to make progress and remain competitive. Unfortunately, the ummah is deeply entangled in ideological and sociopolitical roadblocks to achieve thorough global integration and make real scientific strides in the near future.

asianindian

Look at it this way. Science in North America developed through all individuals pushing boundaries literally from the European settlements on the east coast to the plains, praries, and deserts inland. This pushing of boundaries caused them to require new tools that were developed. These guys who pushed boundaries were called frontiersmen. How many Muslims push boundaries? How many Muslims just work for a luxurious living?