The challenge today for Muslims is not geographic but cultural. A challenge of assimilating the good of the western nations, and keeping the bad away.

In the past, the physical expansion of imperial boundaries may well have been a factor that could have contributed to the advancement of Islamic or Western science. I think that scientific progress today, however, would require something other than the need to develop the technology (?new tools?) to physically expand a political boundary. In my mind, ?pushing boundaries? (the term as applied to the modern world) does not mean literally enlarging geographic expanse but rather integrating globally. Global integration involves such values or priorities as development of world-renowned universities and openness to foreign scientists and graduate students, fair and merit-based admission standards to higher education institutions, strategic alliance with foreign educational and research institutions, tolerance of other cultures, freedom of expression, free exchange of information, scientific career opportunities for youth, intellectual property rights, acceptance of the scientific method of inquiry, development of critical analysis and independent thought in the wider culture, sociopolitical structure immune from dogmatic or scientifically illiterate clerics apathetic to scientific progress, and so on.

Because the Muslim world today is poorly integrated with the international scientific community, Muslims must enlarge their boundaries of global integration to make progress and remain competitive. Unfortunately, the ummah is deeply entangled in ideological and sociopolitical roadblocks to achieve thorough global integration and make real scientific strides in the near future.

Look at it this way. Science in North America developed through all individuals pushing boundaries literally from the European settlements on the east coast to the plains, praries, and deserts inland. This pushing of boundaries caused them to require new tools that were developed. These guys who pushed boundaries were called frontiersmen. How many Muslims push boundaries? How many Muslims just work for a luxurious living?

There may be some individuals dedicated to Quran and science in the midst of an otherwise scientifically apathetic ummah, but the more important point in my mind is that the broader sociopolitical conditions of the ummah affect an individual?s education, priorities, goals, and perspectives (By ?ummah? I mean the collective Muslim nations at present, in a general sense but with special emphasis on the Arab oil dynasties). The current sociopolitical conditions (including the priorities of the political leadership) and institutional structures of the ummah do not appear to be conducive to an individual?s serious pursuit of cutting-edge scientific research to the same extent as they were in the first few centuries after revelation. But this is not to imply that a Muslim, among the ummah or elsewhere, is unworthy of being recognized for scientific accomplishment. After all, to highlight the distinguished scientific accomplishments of Muslims is the objective of this forum.

To be sure, there has been some recent attempt at increasing funding for science and technology, but a corresponding large-scale social impact has so far been minimal at best, in my opinion. Real change would require radical and fundamental reform of education, culture, values, and governance.

Yes in the ummah in general, there is something missing. But what of the individual? Is there no muslim individual today dedicated to study of Quran, environment, and etc only for the sake of devotion to Allah? The rewards of such study are known only to Allah!

Intriguing question about refrigeration, internal combustion engine, and so on that cuts to the crux of the complex issue of the causes of the decline of Islamic Renaissance. Several potential causes have been put forth. I personally have reached no particular conclusive understanding myself. What I do like to deliberate on are the factors that are currently hindering Islamic scientific progress in the more modern era, partly since the present era is a dynamic progression that I am able to scrutinize in real time. For instance, consider petrodollars.

Strictly speaking, it is not that ?Muslim? and ?science? are inherently incompatible. In fact, the Quran emphasizes observation, analysis, reason, and knowledge ? the hallmarks of scientific progress. Several verses in the Quran call people to examine the natural world to see evidence, signs, or ?ayaat? of God and reveal certain primitive, human technological achievements as a blessing from God for which appreciation has been called for. The sciences (biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, geology, botany, climatology, oceanography, embryology, neuroscience, etc.) are awash with God's signs. For instance, refer to the Quranic verses 3:190, 6:99, 7:57, 10:101, 17:12, 21:30, 23:12-14, 29:41-43, 51:20, 55:33-34, 88:17, to name a few. Both science (God?s signs) and religion (God?s scripture) reinforce one another. Science strengthens faith in and appreciation for God and scripture stimulates science. No wonder that in the centuries following the revelation of the Quran, the human civilization was led into a new era of scientific enlightenment.

Despite this explicit scientific spirit of Islam, it does justifiably seem from the question above that something is amiss. In that regard, I think that it would be more accurate to say that the institutional and the social structures governing most of the Muslim lands and the Muslim leadership of the modern era generally appear to lack the impetus, the need, or the concern for the pursuit of science and technology with the same fervor that was characteristic of the historically acclaimed Islamic scientific enlightenment. But it would be rather inaccurate to declare ?Muslim? and ?science? incompatible.

Thing to note is that all Muslims that discovered (scientific) entities that changed this world (Algebra, Medicine, Astronomy, Law, Sociology, Human rights, Environment) were practicing Muslims who followed Islam completely.