Nobel Laureates and the Muslim World By Saleem H Ali

David Brooks of the New York Times wrote a rather controversial article last mon th titled "The Tel Aviv Cluster," in which he enumerated the accomplishments of Israelis in particular, and Jews in general. Brooks noted that, Jews "make up 0. 2 percent of the world population.. but 27 percent of the Nobel physics laureate s and 31 percent of the medicine laureates." The Nobel prize -- for better or fo r worse -- has become a touchstone for measuring success. Since many Muslims oft en see themselves in competition with other Abrahamic faiths, it is worth ponder ing the comparison a bit further.

While many Islamic countries claim to have been victimized by the "war on terror ", it is interesting to note that since September 11, 2001, three of the six ind ividual Nobel peace laureates have been Muslims. Their area of recognition has s panned from human rights activism (Shirin Ebadi, 2003) to nuclear vigilance (Muh ammad El Baradei, 2005) to micro-credit entrepreneurship (Muhammad Yunus, 2006). What is perhaps even more astonishing is that in the 108-year history of the Nob el peace prize there are only two other Muslims who have been so honored. Anwar Saadat (1978) and Yassir Arafat shared the prize with Israeli leaders for highly variable and controversial contributions to building peace in the Middle East. Out of more than five hundred Nobel laureates in the sciences, only two have bee n of Muslim lineage. Pakistan can claim one of them: Abdus Salam, who shared the prize in physics in 1979, and memorably wore a shervani and turban to the award ceremony in Sweden. However, as a member of the Ahmadiya community, he was regr ettably spurned at home as a non-Muslim and died in 1996 without fully being abl e to contribute to science education in Pakistan, despite his noblest intentions . Dr. Ahmed Zewail, an Egyptian-American chemist based at the California Institu te of Technology received the prize for chemistry in 1999 and is the Muslim worl d's sole Nobel science star. He is clearly in high demand for this singular stat us and has also been appointed by President Obama as one of his "science envoys. " The reason for the paucity of Muslim laureates in the sciences is perhaps the re lative intellectual inertia in the educational institutions in many Muslim count ries. There is a tendency for many Muslims to atavistically celebrate the accomp lishments of tenth-century Muslim mathematicians, while investing little in deve loping contemporary educational capacity. Far too often we hear from imams about the etymology of algebra coming from Arabic and the pharmaceutical accomplishme nts of Avicenna but do we ask why more of such great scholars have not been seen for a thousand years in Islamic countries? Furthermore, it is important to reme mber that the golden age of Islam was also its most pluralistic and even then th ere were fundamentalist forces who constantly threatened these scientists. Let u s not forget the ruins of Madinat-al-Zahra, once a show-piece of Islamic art and learning, just outside Cordoba, which was destroyed not by any "kuffar" but ins tead by radical and retrogressive Muslim factions.

Those Muslims who are educated and proceed to develop successful professional ca reers are often sanguine with a comfortable job but would rather not invest in c utting-edge creativity. An interesting example is the medical profession in whic h many Muslims, and indeed Pakistani Muslims, have excelled considerably. Howeve

r, most of these brilliant doctors are focused on making money in clinical pract ice rather than in creative research which would lead to laurels such as the Nob el prize. There is cultural complacence that leads to a mindset where success is marked by simply making a good living for the family, contributing some earning s to charity and then living a lavish life.

As for the recent Muslim peace laureates what is even more striking is that many Muslims have rejected their efforts and refused to accept them as role models, labelling them instead as stooges of the West.

I was amazed at the reaction of one Canadian Muslim professor to the Nobel Prize awarded to Muhammad Yunus. There was spiteful criticism of Dr Yunus as a narcis sist who was charging the destitute exorbitant un-Islamic interest rates. As wit h Shirin Ebadi and Muhammad ElBaradei, many Muslims also consider Dr Yunus a "st ooge of the West". While there are some valid critiques of the Grameen Bank mode l in Bangladesh, it is unfortunate that any novel idea has to be met with such c ontrarian zeal with few alternative solutions. The overall picture is fairly cle ar: Bangladesh is at least showing strongly positive signs of development, as me asured by indicators developed by Pakistan's own celebrated economist, the late Mahbub-ul-Haq (who may well have become the first Muslim to win the Nobel Prize in economics had he lived long enough). According to the director of the UN's Hu man Development Report, Kevin Watkins, Bangladesh has seen child mortality falli ng at an annual rate 50 percent higher than India and in 2006 the child survival rate is better in Bangladesh than in either India or Pakistan. This is especial ly remarkable for a country that has all natural odds against it with annual flo ods, cyclones and a capricious agricultural climate.

Let us now turn to another Muslim Nobel laureate, Orhan Pamuk of Turkey who won the Nobel Prize for literature. Given the attendance of the Turkish leadership a t this year's "U.S. Islamic World Forum" , understanding his place in this panth eon is quite significant as well. The late Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz is the only other Muslim writer to have won this prize. Both of these writers have bee n known to marginalize their Islamic identity at various times, and perhaps the literature prize mirrors the peace prize in its political message. Just as Gandh i was denied the peace prize despite being an inspiration to so many later laure ates, some Muslim writers may claim a measure of discrimination here, contending that only a certain liberal elite is even considered seriously. In the case of Mr Pamuk, one Turkish writer commented in the Wall Street Journal that he "has n ot taught anyone anything they didn't already know but has made precisely the ri ght noises that the progressive arbiters of taste in Europe like to hear".

While it may be argued that the literature, peace and economics prizes are polit icized, there is little doubt that the science prize is quite authentic in its m easure of excellence. This is where Muslims should admire our Jewish brethren an d learn from them rather than grumbling about discrimination.

Alfred Nobel, the man who perfected the alchemy of dynamite, could scarcely have imagined how momentous his legacy would be for times to come. Every autumn we a wait the announcements from Scandinavia about this most coveted of international honors. As the pantheon of laureates grows larger and more diverse, the Islamic

contribution to this prize remains relatively small. This is a time for introsp ection among Muslims and non-Muslims alike regarding the means and merits of suc h rewards, and how best to use them as incentives for improving the human condit ion.

Dr Saleem H Ali is associate professor of environmental planning at the Universi ty of Vermont. His latest book is "Treasures of the Earth: Need, Greed and a Sus tainable Future" (Yale University Press, 2009) http://saleemali.newsvine.com/

URL: http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamIslamicSociety_1.aspx?ArticleID=3008