UAE | General
Bridging the gap between West and Islam
Dubai-based company holds exhibition in Western cities to foster better understanding between the West and Islam
- By Jay B. Hilotin, Chief Reporter
- Published: 00:00 September 9, 2010
- Image Credit: Supplied
- The exhibition highlights Islam's contribution to astronomy, engineering, exploration, art, flight, medicine, optics, water control, maths, time-keeping and architecture
Dubai: Even as controversy rages over the proposed mosque near Ground Zero in America, an exhibition organised in the US by a Dubai-based company seeks to bridge the cultural divide between the Western world and Islam.
The "Sultans of Science: 1,000 Years of Knowledge Rediscovered" exhibition, put together by Dubai's MTE Studios, homes in on the positive contributions made by the Islamic world and has been doing the rounds of key western cities, including the non-profit Liberty Science Centre (LSC) in New Jersey, across the Hudson River from Manhattan, where the Twin Towers stood before September 9/11. Organisers said the exhibition stimulated constructive debate and thoughts on the topic.
"The least well-known of past cultures of curiosity, exploration and discovery with respect to science and technology was the Islamic world between the 9th and 16th centuries," said Dr Emlyn Koster, LSC chief executive.
Golden Age
The exhibit highlights the contribution of Muslim scholars to science and technology during the ‘Golden Age' of the Islamic world across several disciplines - astronomy, engineering, exploration, flight, medicine, optics, water control, mathematics, time-keeping, art and architecture.
Ludo Verheyen, chief executive of MTE Studios, said the exhibition is helping raise awareness of Islamic contribution to modern-day society. He observed that American schools tend to offer a "narrow" history.
For example, he said, when youngsters are asked who designed the first flying apparatus, they answer the Wright Brothers in the 19th century or even [Leonardo] Da Vinci in the 15th century, but historical records show that the earliest known person to build and pilot a flying device was Abbas Bin Firnas in 9th Century Islamic Spain.
Prof John H. Lienhard of the University of Houston acknowledged Abbas Bin Firnas' flight in his work The Engines of Our Ingenuity.
The exhibition has drawn record crowds at the venues in three countries: MTN Science Centre in Cape Town, South Africa; Liberty Science Centre in New Jersey, USA; Ontario Science Centre in Canada; Islamic Da'wah Centre in Houston, Texas in 2009; and Telus World of Science in Canada, which ran till last Monday.
"There is a spirit of invention, innovation and creativity in Arab nations which led the world in the past and can lead to an even more prosperous future," said Verheyen.
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