THE religious zealots have hijacked our political scene. They are gleefully dragging the nation towards mediaeval era, using Islam as a slogan of so-called piety and Puritanism.

One cause of decline of Islamic civilisation was mixing of religion with politics. But an equally important reason for our downfall has been the false belief of Muslim clerics that anything modern is essentially un-Islamic. One may quote the following examples

1. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan`s epic struggle for educating the Muslim masses was strongly opposed by mullahs who believed that the English language was inherently un-Islamic. They refused to believe that all languages are Allah`s creation. They failed to realise that Allah sent numerous Prophets who delivered the Divine message in numerous languages.

2. Modern gadgets like loudspeakers, cameras and radio were considered `satanic`, about 50 years ago.

3. The printing press was initially banned by the Ottoman empire. The Turkish Guild of Writers declared it was `devil`s invention`. Subsequently, they allowed it with the condition that printing will be allowed only in Hebrew.

4. TV Channel 4 in the UK recently showed a copy of the Holy Quran found in Venice, printed 500 years ago. They reported that this is perhaps the last and only copy left, because the Muslim clerics of that era refused to accept mechanically printed version of the holy book.

The following major events can be regarded as `milestones` in our disastrous journey towards regression, degeneration and decay

1. Muslims` failure, about 1258, to protect their treasure of knowledge when Baghdad was ransacked by the Mongols.

2. Muslims` failure, about 1492, to protect Hispania from the Europeans who were culturally still living in the dark ages. This was the time when Columbus discovered America that provided vast natural resources to the Europeans.

3. Ottomans and other Muslim nations of 18th and 19th centuries ignored the Industrial Revolution and considered modern science as anti-God.

4. The printing process was more difficult in eastern languages because the scripts did not allow easy typecasting. Even so when the Arabic Quran was printed 500 years ago, there was no enthusiasm on our part to publish our great treasures of knowledge in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, physics and chemistry. Allama Iqbal says

Magar woh ilm ke moti, kitabein apne aabaa ki / Jo dekhein un ko Europe mein to dil hota hai see paara!

Our apathy towards science is based on the fallacy that the sciences are in competition with God. In fact, all the laws of sciences are Allah`s creation. Man is only trying to understand the Divine laws of nature. As soon as Allah created the earth and the heavens, the laws of sciences were born. Then Adam was taught `names` by the Almighty (see Sura Baqara).

That was the start of our lessons in science. Indeed one can say that neglecting sciences is un-Islamic.

KHALID A
London