Muslim Statistics (Science)

Scientific Contributions

Worldwide

OIC [Organization of the Islamic Conference] countries have 8.5 scientists, engineers and technicians per 1,000 population as compared to 40.7 of world average and 139.3 for OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] countries. The contribution of Muslim countries to world science literature is also meagre. Forty-six Muslim countries contribute 1.17 percent to world science literature as compared to 1.66 percent by India and 1.48 percent by Spain. Twenty Arab countries contribute 0.55 percent as compared to 0.89 percent by Israel alone.

April, 1997

Evolution

Worldwide

More than 90% of the worlds Muslims deny evolution.

More than 90 per cent of Muslims worldwide, according to impeccable research, reject the science of evolution out of hand. Indeed, Islamic Creationists in Turkey are funding a huge campaign to important bogus “altases of Creation” into European schools.

August, 2008

A recent survey of public acceptance of evolution in 34 countries did include one Muslim country, Turkey. The study found that about 25% of adults in Turkey agree with the statement, “Human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals,” well below the United States (at 40%). The result is all the more worrisome, because Turkey is one of the most educated and secular of Muslim countries. A recent sociological study analyzing religious patterns in Muslim countries (Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt, Malaysia, Turkey, and Kazakhstan) included a question about evolution as an example of an idea that challenges a “fundamental religious belief widely held by Muslims”. The respondents were asked: “Do you agree or disagree with Darwin’s theory of evolution?” Only 16% of Indonesians, 14% of Pakistanis, 8% of Egyptians, 11% of Malaysians, and 22% of Turks agree that Darwin’s theory is probably or most certainly true (see chart, page 1637). The former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, already showing differences in religious patterns with other countries in the study, had the highest fraction that accepted evolutionary theory. In fact, only 28% of Kazakhs thought that evolution is false,

2006-2007

United Kingdom

“The experience of my Turkish publisher of The God Delusion was that he was threatened with arrest for blasphemy. He may even have been arrested, and my website has been banned in Turkey. I feel amused really. There’s something to be said for being suppressed, it makes people want to read you.”

While most non-fundamentalist Christian traditions have largely accepted evolution, Islam was still much more hostile, he said. “It’s the fact that Islam teaches the Koran is the literal word of God, unlike most Christian sects, which say the Bible is largely symbolic. That could well be the cause.”

Professor Dawkins added that Islamic influence is the likely explanation for the growing popularity of creationist beliefs in Britain, where a recent poll found that 30 per cent of teenagers accept the rebranded idea of “intelligent design”.

“I think that’s pretty clear,” he said. “I hear that from colleagues at the coalface of teaching. There has been a sharp upturn in hostility to teaching of evolution in the classroom and it’s mostly coming from Islamic students.

August, 2009

United States

Survey of religious (and irreligious) American physicians conducted by the Louis Finkelstein Institute for Social and Religious Research at The Jewish Theological Seminary and HCD Research in Flemington, New Jersey:

May, 2005

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