published last week in Science:

Science in the Arab World: Vision of Glories Beyond

full text at:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/308/5727/1416
(may not be free content)

Quotes:

Of all its accomplishments, the West is perhaps most proud of its
scientific revolution, which has been unfolding for the past half
millennium. Only students of history remain consistently mindful of the
pivotal and catalytic role that the Arab world played in the early
phases of this revolution. Now, all of us should have a vested interest
in advancing science and technology in the Arab community. Science and
technology provide the means to feed people, improve their health, and
create wealth. They can help to reduce societal tensions and build
international bridges for badly needed dialogue and mutual
understanding. To usher science and technology more thoroughly into Arab
culture and society, however, the West needs to acknowledge the Arab
world's historical contributions, and the Arab world needs to stop
dwelling on its golden past by also embracing lessons about science and
technology that the West learned long ago.

In medieval Europe, where the Christian dogma that the world unfolded
according to a divinely predetermined plan prevailed, there was little
space for those willing and eager to understand nature in order to use
it for their own benefit.

...

During the Abbasid reign (750 to 1258), learning in Islam was encouraged
in every field of knowledge, and scholars of every color and creed
traveled to Damascus and Baghdad to study and work. In these tolerant
times, Islam's leaders encouraged learning and the use of reason to
understand nature. The early Abbasid Caliphs--most notably Al-Mansur,
Harun Al-Rachid, and Al Ma'mun, who reigned from 754 to 833--embraced
science as a state's defining policy, ushering in a golden era of
Arab-Islamic civilization. ... Arab and Muslim scholars scored
achievements in every field of science: mathematics, astronomy,
medicine, optics, and philosophy.

...

From that point on, the scientific paradigm of knowledge production
advanced relentlessly throughout Europe. At the same time, the
Arab-Islamic civilization and its contributions to science and knowledge
started its long decline ... Moreover, this descent was accompanied by a
major shift in the dominant thought paradigms in Arab-Islamic contexts,
from the rational and tolerant to a more conservative school of thinking
that denounced philosophy and rationalism. This conservative,
indoctrinated view of the world continues to be influential today with
no real challenge to it other than that of the reformists of the 19th
and early 20th centuries, such as Jamal Eddin Al-Afghani and Muhammed
Abduh. Both scholars explicitly opposed Western colonialism, but they
embraced rationalism and sought to reconcile Islamic principles with
those of modernism.

...

Currently, the scientific output of Arabs is disproportionate to their
human and economic capacities. Taking biomedical research as an example,
Arab countries currently produce less than 1% of citations in the world
and contribute less than 0.5% of papers appearing in the 200 leading
medical journals. Annual spending on research and development in Arab
countries is estimated at 0.15% of their gross domestic product (GDP),
compared to a world average of 1.4%.

...

Even as most poor Arab states viewed science as a luxury that they could
not afford, wealthy Arab states perpetrated an illusory adoption of
science and technology. Rich Arabs believed that oil money plus Western
technology was a simple formula for industrialization and modernization.
Thus, acquiring the latest technological products or shares in hi-tech
industries became synonymous with being partners in the technological
revolution of the modern world. After all, most Arabs view science as a
commodity that can be separated from the thought processes and
sociocultural attributes of its producers. This perspective makes it
hard to appreciate the differences in culture and values between
technology-producing and technology-consuming societies.

...

Arabs were awakened to the fact that the arrival of innovations brings
with it, directly or indirectly, the lifestyle and sociocultural values
of their innovators. Wealth, it seems, is powerless against the culture
of those who create and own the technology. For most Arab societies
today, the tides of inputs coming from all directions--from their
conflict-ridden present, from the unjust distribution of wealth, and
from their tyrant-controlled regimes that tolerate no dissent--have been
confusing, relentless, and exhausting. The resulting frustration has
been channeled outward toward the West in the form of disdain and
hostility, and inward in the form of an antagonistic view of the world.

In this conflicted sociological and emotional context, there has been
little space in the Arab mind to distinguish between market dynamics,
politics, and nations, to perceive the valuable discourse and diversity
within Western societies, or to appreciate the moral values and work
ethics of Western culture. Instead, the entirety of the West has been
gradually demonized. And by linking modern Western culture to the period
of the Crusades, many Arab opinion-makers forged a historical basis for
this vilification as an uninterrupted continuation of the evils of the
past (arguably many people in the West, especially after 9/11, have
adopted a similar mind-set toward Arabs and Muslims). From a
psychological standpoint, such an attitude is understandable. As a proud
people, Arabs turned to their golden past for a refuge, and as a
threatened culture, they turned to their native thought system (Islam)
for answers. More than that, however, this reaction has proceeded to the
point where the past has become distilled and purified, and Islamic
teachings have been selectively used to embrace and abet the emerging
anti-Western sentiment.

With little reason for pride or celebration, Arabs leaned toward
trivializing mortal earthly life, choosing instead to reassess the main
purpose of existence as ensuring heavenly immortality. A logical
extension of this existential reevaluation has been to view the West's
interest in science as an improper indulgence in material trivialities.
For decades, these changes were proliferating and festering under the
surface, creating an atmosphere inimical to science and one effectively
closed to the possibility of learning from the Western experience.

Science was caught in the cross-fire. Subconsciously for many Arabs,
modern science's ties to the West, to rationalism, and to natural
materialism gave it the flavor of enmity. And because science cannot be
practiced nowadays without close collaboration with Western academic
institutions, research has become, in the minds of many Arabs, a
suspicious activity and yet another potential gateway for Western incursi=

Science thrives on freedom of inquiry and unfettered flow of
information. Most Arab societies are run by dictatorships that practice
different levels of censorship on their citizens, leading to a weakening
of democratic institutions. Such institutions are vital for the
development of science by unlocking the diversity within the society,
making it less prone to quietly adopt rigid dogmas and doctrines,
advocating the importance of science and freedom of inquiry, and
shielding scientists from social and political pressures against
research dealing with sensitive social and cultural issues, such as the
influence of polygamy on the physical and mental health of women.=B6 If
they were in place, functional democratic institutions also would make
it more difficult for rulers to spend most of the national income on
arms while other areas, including science, suffer greatly from the lack
of funding.

...

But what are the prospects for Arabs in today's science landscape? The
same information revolution that has been perceived by so many Arabs as
threatening also presents an unprecedented opportunity for every nation
in the world to close the science and technology gap. Every society now
has the means to build its own science and technology capacities and in
ways that do not necessarily follow the path of the West's scientific
revolution. Such a prospect should make it easier for Eastern cultures
to build their science base, and indeed, many nations in Asia are doing
just that without much concern about the loss of their cultural identity
or moral values.

...

The Arab world needs to reopen its collective mind to the West, by
acknowledging the West's contribution of modern science to the world. At
the same time, the West should recognize the Arabic contribution to the
scientific revolution without downplaying the role that Islam has
played. Real pride of the golden past of Arabs means extracting the
right lessons from it: adoption of science by the state, encouragement
of free scientific inquiry, promotion of science among the masses, and
most importantly, embracing the scientific accomplishments of other
cultures without fear or prejudice. Certainly, the highest standard of
piety should become once again the individual's contribution to the
welfare of his society, and the greatest sin, the acceptance of a
continuing and avoidable backwardness and dependence.