October 22, 2003	Wednesday	Sha’aban 25, 1424

WASHINGTON, Oct 21: Knowledge flourishes in a climate of freedom, not in restrictions, observes a report that probes the causes of under-development in the Arab and Muslim worlds.

The Arab Human Development Report, released at the UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday, urges Arabs and Muslims to urgently close a “growing knowledge gap” by investing in high- quality, analytical education, promoting open intellectual enquiry and developing an authentic Arab knowledge model.

The report was prepared by 40 distinguished Arab scholars, along with 30 advisers and peer reviewers, and co-sponsored by the UN Development Program and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development.

The report proposed building a new knowledge-based Arab society on “five pillars.”

“A climate of freedom is an essential prerequisite of the knowledge society,” the document said. “It is also imperative to end the era of administrative control and the grip of security agencies over the production and dissemination of knowledge and the various forms of creative activity that are foundations for the knowledge society in Arab countries.”

It identifies universal basic education as the second pillar of the proposed knowledge society and suggests radical changes in higher education as well. The report also proposed establishing an independent Arab organization for the accreditation of all higher education programs.

Appropriate institutions, with appropriate funding, were needed to encourage basic research that would meet regional demand, especially in science and technology, which is the third pillar, the report said.

“A starting point for this is to overcome the illusion that importing technology, as embodied in products, machinery and services, is equivalent to acquiring knowledge.”

The report recommends “shifting rapidly towards knowledge- based and value-added production,” diversifying economic structures and markets, as the fourth pillar.

Creating the Arab knowledge model, the fifth pillar, would involve “delivering pure religion from political exploitation and respecting independent scholarship.” It proposes serious linguistic research into and reform of the Arabic language and urges “promoting cultural diversity in the region and opening up to other cultures.”

The report estimates that there are 371 research scientists and engineers per one-million citizens in Arab countries, compared to a global rate of 979 per million. Only 1.6 per cent of the Arab population has Internet access, compared to 68 per cent in Britain and 79 per cent in the US, it says.

It also notes rising anxieties about cultural dissolution in an emerging global culture, but says, “The Arab-Islamic culture at its zenith was a role model for borrowing and assimilation, followed by generous giving when it established its distinguished knowledge edifice.”

Recent advances, such as more women elected to political office and the expansion of satellite news broadcasting, have been partly eclipsed by tightened security in several countries following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, it observes.

“These measures and policies exceeded their original goals and led to the erosion of civil and political liberties in many countries in the world, notably the United States, often diminishing the welfare of Arabs and Muslims living, studying, or travelling abroad, interrupting cultural exchanges between the Arab world and the West and cutting off knowledge acquisition opportunities for young Arabs,” the report says.

“The intensity of Arab opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq and to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza have heightened political tensions within Arab states and have become in themselves obstacles to open interchange with the United States and its allies,” it adds.

The Arab Charter against Terrorism is portrayed as another negative. “It allows censorship, restricts access to the Internet and restricts printing and publication” and does not prohibit detention and torture, the report said.

In accompanying opinion polls, interviewees in the Arab world are the strongest supporters of democracy and the most determined opponents of authoritarian governments in the world, the report observers. Their results of these polls are compared with polls taken in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, other Islamic countries, Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, North America — together with Australia and New Zealand, South Asia and East Asia.

The polls also show support for overall male-female equality in education, but not in the workplace.

“In human development terms, Arabs expressed support for building the human capabilities of women, but not for their utilization,” the authors concluded.