Reflection: The Future Of Science In The Islamic World Journal Article

Reflections THE FUTURE OF SCIENCE IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD So hail I nayatullah In Islamabad, while speakers at a recent OIC/Comstech (Standing Committee on Science and Technology) meeting titled "Science in the Islamic Polity in the Next Century" delivered tirades against the West, they conspicuously stood at a podium that boldly displayed the words "Best Western. ''1 This postmodern paradox captures the angst of a conference that called for more basic science; more and better textbooks; a science focused on the basic human needs of food, shelter, and energy; a self-sustaining science, independent of external money or models; a "Big Western" science that develops new laser, information, and nuclear technologies; and a science that better reflects the worldview of Islam. / Islamic science was meant to unleash creativity in science by recovering the traditional categories of tawhid (unity), 'ilm (knowledge) and khali[ah (man's sense of being his Creator's trustee): it was meant to develop a science based on an alternative worldview=-one that was not modernist in orientation, that is, not framed around the values of the nationstate, reductionism, methodological individualism, materialism, and military expansionism. In addition to developing a critique of Western science and not acceding to an entirely cultural position of Islamic science, the conference touched upon the politics of policy making. However, while delegates at the meeting debated the positions of Islamic science, Western science, Islamic ontological science, and the world political economy (which frames who gets what), new technologies promise to transform the ground of the debate.