Ebook: Islam and Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle for Rationality

Islam and Science explores the relationship between scientitic thought and Islamic theory and practice, both historically and in the contemporary Muslim world. The author's controversial, but important, contention is that science in these countries today is in an appalling state, and that religious orthodoxy and the rise of fundamentalism are responsible. His book thus deals with one of the critical factors likely to determine the success or otherwise with which the Muslim world responds to the accelerating challenges of scientific and technological advance.

Despite the ludicrous excesses of scientitic obscurantism (wittily described here) which so-called Islamic Science has recently given rise to in countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Dr Hoodbhoy suggests that there is no necessary contlict between Islam and Science; on the contrary, during the Golden Age of Muslim rule. there was for several centuries a sustained flowering of scientitic thought which continued until a threatening religious orthodoxy launched a sustained attack on rational thought.

This courageous and original book ranges over the whole span of Muslim history and Islamic debate in seeking answers to the fundamental questions which it poses, including why in the end the scientific revolution did not take place under Islam.

It is a seminal contribution to our understanding of the future development prospects of Muslim societies, as well as an incisive and policy-relevant critique of current educational policy and practice.

"A compelling and provocative analysis of the relationship between the scientific spirit and the orthodoxy of one of the great monotheistic religions. Any reader, Muslim or non-Muslim, is bound to be affected by Dr. Hoodbhoy's clear and persuasive arguments." —Edward W. Said, professor of literature at Columbia University, founder of the academic field of post-colonial studies, author of Orientalism

"Perhaps the most important book written and published in Pakistan in recent years." —Irfan Husain, columnist and writer, Dawn (Karachi)

Dr Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy is a Pakistani nuclear physicist, mathematician and academic who serves as Distinguished Professor of Physics and Mathematics at the Forman Christian College in Lahore.