"I will say again that the only way out for the Arab world in 2002, is to create a scientific culture. Such a culture will appreciate the importance of religion while thinking scientifically. This has been the principal dynamic of Islamic culture and civilisation. It will not help the Arabs, or the Muslims, if they remain in the current spiral of ideological thinking, or what has become a 'hearsay culture'." In Egypt, he noted, too much has been made of Samuel Huntington's "clash of civilisations" theory, which, while inspiring only a passing comment or two in the US, has become a recurring theme of public debate here. "I do not believe that civilisations, by definition, can clash. What we have between East and West is not a 'clash' of civilisations, or of religions, but a situation bred by politics because of perceptions in the Middle East of the US favouring Israel, [combined with] the continuing lack of a resolution to the Palestinian problem. The problems have also arisen because of economic conditions, and mutual ignorance."
Al Ahram
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
<span>Trivialities, indeed. Poor man. He wants to help Egypt and this is what he gets. No good deed goes unpunished, for sure. And of course there is the obnoxious charge of being acceptable to the Zionist lobby. Ugh. Such pettiness will not inspire Arab scientists to think outside the box. The critics most likely would have been thrilled with the guy had he spouted off the usual anti-American and anti-Israel rhetoric when he accepted his prize or spoke at AUB or AUC. The angryarab would have given him an unequivocal stamp of approval.</span>
ReplyDelete