In an interview with The Peninsula yesterday, Dr El Baz, who is renowned for the pivotal role played in the manned Apollo lunar missions, said: "The Holy Quran consistently carries statements that exhort believers to analyse nature, explore and discover because the more you learn, the greater you can see the glory of the Creator. Science therefore, is not at conflict with Islam, as some people wrongly believe."
He lamented that the brain-drain from the Arab world was not caused due to misconceptions about Islam and science. Instead, its primary cause was the disinterest by Arab leadership in science and technology who believed these should be the exclusive pursuit of wealthy countries who had surplus resources such as the US, he added.
Dr El Baz worked with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) between 1967 and 1972, the era during which the US sent several manned missions to the moon – the Apollo. In 1975, he was also involved with the joint project between the US and Soviet Union, the Apollo and Soyuz mission. For the Apollo manned missions, Dr El Baz, a geologist by training, had helped select the landing spot on the moon surface. He had traveled extensively to the Middle East and Qatar, among other places, to acquaint himself with the possible scenarios of the lunar surface.
He said, most Arab leaders in the past believed that exploration, science and technology were not worthy of their attention and hence did not invest any resources. "They felt these were a luxury for the rich and as a result, the Arab world lost out on the space age, the nuclear age and the industrial age. We are also on the verge of missing the information age but there seems to be some realisation now that science and technology are very important," he added.
Citing an example, Dr El Baz said, Egypt, Iran and India were all involved in nuclear energy programmes since 1954. However, only India had gone ahead and exploited the field to its maximum possible capacity while Egypt lags drastically behind. Similarly, India was quick to grasp the information age and software exports from the country – its largest producer – to the US alone, stand at a whopping $21bn per year, he added.
South Korea, he noted, had some years ago embarked on a seven year education reforms and diverted all its resources to the programme. "Though the programme took 11years, four years more than the initial plan of seven years, today the Korean manpower is extremely skilled," he added.
"Arab countries neglected science and technology due to the fact that knowledge itself was not valued and hence, creation was not valued. So, the job of a scientist had no great importance. They did not think science as tangible to the economics," he said.
Frequent major and minor conflicts in the region had also diverted the attention of the Arab leadership from science, causing a "hemorrhage" of talent from the region to Western countries.
Despite a late start, Dr El Baz pointed out, the Arab world can still catch up with developing and developed countries because a realisation on the importance of science and technology was now greater.
Post 9-11, there was no real impact on the number of Arab scientists pursuing research in the US but some restrictions such as stricter visa rules, he said, might deter a few from going to that country.
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