Seminars. Conferences. Addresses 

Science in the Islamic Polity in the 

Twenty-First Century 

25-29 Shawwiil 1415 I 26-30 March 1995

Islamabad, Pakistan 

This conference was a rare occasion for Muslim scientists and schol­
ars to assemble and discuss the challenges facing the ummah. Inaugurated 
by Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari, the president of Pakistan, the conference 
consisted of fifty papers presented in eight inaugural and plenary sessions. 
The issues discussed were of both theoretical and practical import. 

The theoretical papers focused on such questions as the nature and sig­
nificance of science, the concept of Islamic science, and Islamic epistemol­
ogy. According to Ziauddin Sardar, who gave the public lecture "Islamic 
Science: The Way Ahead," science is a highly complex and multilayered 
activity, for 

no single and simple description of science can reveal its true 
nature; no romantic ideal can describe its real character; no sweep­
ing generalization can uncover its authentic dimensions. In partic­
ular, both the extreme positions of scientific fundamentalism and 
fundamentalist relativism are untenable. 

He stated that science has been under the influence of the dominant 
western paradigm and that the selection of research priorities is of funda­
mental importance in scientific research, for "often it is the source of fund­
ing that defines what problem is to be investigated.'' Some 80 percent of 
American research is funded by the "military-industrial complex" and is 
geared to producing military and industrial equipment. 

As modem science is based on western values and the priority given to 
scientific investigation is determined by western requirements, science 
must be indigenized. Muslim countries have a valuable and untapped reser­
voir of knowledge and experience. so such an indigenization would be like 
a rediscovery. But this process, Sardar maintains, "must begin by a rejec­
tion of both the axioms about nature, universe, time, and humanity as well 
a5 the goals and direction of western science and the methodology which 
hac; made meaningless reductionism, objectification of nature, and torture 
of animals its basic approach." By Islamic science he means a scientific 
activity pursued within the framework of a set of fundamental Islamic con­
cepts. Sardar supports the concepts, identified by Muslim scientists at the 
Stockholm Seminar (1981), that should shape the science policies of 
Muslim societies: tawhid (unity), khiliifah (trusteeship), 'ihiidah (worship),