A knowledge deficit : 'The Muslim world is hopelessly weak' 
International Herald Tribune
July 30, 2002
Mahathir bin Mohamad 

What is the state of the Muslim world today? I don't think it would be wrong to say that the Muslim world is at its lowest ebb, and is probably continuing to decline.

Since the Turkish Muslim empire that spanned much of the Middle East fell before the onslaught of the European nations, the Muslim world has broken up into small and ineffective nation-states. It has not been able to stage a recovery, much less re-establish itself on the world stage. Individually, Muslim states have been unable to make any progress or impact.

In fact, for many of the peoples of the Turkish empire, their cooperation with the Europeans to free themselves from Turkish rule only resulted in a change of colonial masters from Turkish to British or French. It was only after a long time and with great difficulty that they managed to extricate themselves from European colonial rule.

Independence has not enabled them to develop and regain the political clout of the old Muslim empires. Instead they have been faced with internal problems which prevent them from making progress. Even when they are richly endowed, they have not been able to make any real progress. Not a single Muslim country is to be found among the developed nations of the world.

When the Industrial Revolution took place in the 19th century, the Muslim World was still relatively undivided. But Muslims as a whole were either unaware of the revolution or rejected it. For a long time, much of the results of the Industrial Revolution, whether in terms of material gains or of systems, was rejected by Muslims as un-Islamic, including electricity and mechanized vehicles. So we lost valuable time as the advances passed by us.

Muslims are rightly concerned about what is forbidden by their religion. Unfortunately, we often go overboard. In Afghanistan, so powerful is the belief that no part of a woman may be seen by strangers that women refuse to take off the burqa even when they are allowed to. Yet in other parts of the Muslim world it is permissible to leave the face and the hands uncovered. Who decreed these dress codes?

The injunctions of Islam on more important matters are ignored with impunity. The brotherhood of Muslims is openly disregarded. Muslims who declare themselves as brothers in Islam often make it their duty to fight and kill other Muslims. They would, in the name of Islam, condemn these Muslims as infidels to justify their enmity toward them. If we go by their criteria for being Muslim, then there are probably no Muslims in the world. In any case, Islam forbids the frivolous labeling of other Muslims as infidels.

Similarly we are enjoined by Islam to seek knowledge. But Muslims ignore this important injunction. At the beginning they did not do so. As a result there were great Muslim physicians, mathematicians, astronomers, geographers and other experts during the great days of Muslim civilization.

But later, knowledge was interpreted as religious knowledge only. The study of other kinds was regarded as either sinful or lacking in merit and not contributing to the afterlife. So the pursuit of knowledge, other than the specifically religious, was neglected.

To this day we neglect such knowledge. Muslim students studying nonreligious subjects feel guilty. They try to make up by devoting as much of their time as possible to various so-called Islamic activities to earn merit. The result is that Muslim students hardly ever achieve excellence in the sciences and other important subjects, including the research so necessary to compete with the the non-Muslim world.

One of the fundamental teachings of Islam is the need to be equipped with the weapons and defense capability to instill fear in the enemy and to defend Muslims. This teaching is obviously neglected. The Jews, with just 13 million people in the whole world, can defeat the forces of 1.3 billion Muslims. In fact, just about anyone can oppress any Muslim country. There is nothing the Muslim states can do beyond crying and appealing for justice.

The Muslim world is hopelessly weak and backward. We must banish the idea that the only knowledge that we need is about Islam. Neglect of other knowledge has led to our lack of industrial capacity and our inability to invent and produce weapons to instill fear in the enemy and defend ourselves.

The writer is prime minister of Malaysia. This comment was adapted by the International Herald Tribune from a speech to the International Forum on Islam in Kuala Lumpur on July 19.[Not to be reproduced without the permission of the author.]

Copyright © 2006 the International Herald Tribune