In the 300 years between 800-1100 Islam supported a culture of science, mathematics, art & learning like no other. Bagdad was the geographical centre of this enlightenment and scholars from all backgrounds and religions and nationalities were welcomed to share and contribute. It is here that our modern 'Arabic' alphabet was borne as was advanced mathematics using the numeral "0" and decimal points. "Algerbra" & "Algorythm" are Arabic words as are the majoritory of the names of stars in the sky (the constellations are Roman & Greek, but the stars that form them have Arabic names) Then in 12 Century an Islamic cleric called al-Gazahli begins preaching that mathematics is the work of the devil....and Islams' influence begins to decline. The resurgence of religiousosity, psuedo-science & willful ignorance in western society today risks the very foundations on what our society was built on..science, maths & critical, evidence based theory. With over 1Billion muslims in the world, they represent 0% of Nobel Prize winners (jews number just 15 million but make up over 1/4 of nobel prize recipients). A grand, enlightened culture was destroyed from within by religion. The lesson for us is, ultimately it is not outside agencies we should be worried about destroying our nations and way of life. But our own laziness, ignorance and popularism. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BJW2lX4TPA[/youtube]
Hey I'm no expert on this topic, but a quick google search says that there are Muslim Nobel Prize winners. Unless you're saying there is a different Nobel Prize that I'm unaware of. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Muslim_Nobel_laureates
Good point! Surely he'd know, and know that people would check. The only explanation I can think of is that he's talking mainly about science, and at the time he gave that talk in 2012 there was only 1 or 2 winners of the science Nobel (the Pakistani guy is a member of a non-Muslim community according to the gov. but that could be political BS), and the rest are winners of the literature, economics and peace prizes. Not too convincing I guess.
