At a recent campaign rally in Michigan, United States Secretary of Health Robert F Kennedy Jr made remarks that have caused much controversy. He alleged that Muslim Arabs do not produce science and literature and do not win major awards because of the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood. This was not merely a hasty and inaccurate assessment of the knowledge production of a specific demographic.
It was a statement that reflects racist attitudes and misconceptions about an entire region and an entire religion. It is also easily refutable. There are plenty of Muslim Arab scientists, thinkers and writers who have made major contributions over the past century.
Some of them are Nobel laureates, such as novelist Naguib Mahfouz, diplomat Mohamed ElBaradei, journalist Tawakkol Karman, and scientists Ahmed Zewail, Moungi Bawendi and Omar Yaghi. Many others have not received a Western award but have nevertheless contributed significantly to their own countries and the world. The Arab world does face challenges in knowledge production, but this does not prove an inherent deficit in its people or the overwhelming influence of a certain political group.
Rather, it reflects historical and institutional conditions that impact this process. Human civilisations have not been equal in knowledge production across history. Some have witnessed scientific and intellectual flourishing while others have faced decline and turmoil.
Downturns have not occurred because populations had suddenly lost their mental capacities but because the political, economic, cultural and institutional conditions that allow knowledge to thrive change over time. In the case of the Islamic civilisation, its centres – from Baghdad and Damascus to Cairo and Cordoba – experienced a vast scientific and intellectual movement involving scholars, translators, philosophers, physicians and mathematicians from diverse religious and linguistic backgrounds for centuries. This prosperity was not isolated from the world; it was built on the translation, critique, development and interaction with Greek, Syriac, Indian and other bodies of knowledge.
Meanwhile, parts of Europe experienced significant backwardness in scientific education and development. However, Europe was not a monolith, nor were those centuries a homogeneous dark period. It also witnessed varying intellectual, institutional and scientific developments across different regions and timeframes.
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