… the Muslim world will find itself cut off from the mainstream of scientific research. Already, we are trailing far behind the rest of the world in the sciences, as we are in so much else. For decades, virtually no original research has been conducted in Muslim nations. And when we miraculously produce a Nobel-Prize winner like Dr Abdus Salam, we drive him away by our bigotry. Our excuse for our backwardness in the sciences is the poverty that is endemic in so many Muslim countries. But this is not true for several oil-rich states. The reality is that there is not a single world-class research institution in any Islamic country. Instead of squabbling over the fine points of dogma, if we could devote some of our energy to acquiring knowledge, we would all be far better off today.

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