In ninth-century Arabia, caliph Harron Al Rashid of the Abbasid caliphate established a private venue called Bayt Al Hikma (the House of Wisdom). A few years later his son formalized it and started bringing scientists from all over the world of different religions and ethnicities to come to Baghdad (which also happens to be my hometown). There they studied science, logic, and the humanities, as well as translated and preserved important works from different languages.

Bayt Al Hikma represents a major center of scholarship as well as a symbol of the Islamic Golden Age and the scientific revolution that unfolded there at the time.

The Abbasid caliphate also had its “what happened?” situation that led to its fall, but we cannot deny that the Golden Age it helped to engender is an era worth reviving.

Let’s look at what is happening in the Arab world today.

As of 2002, the total number of books translated into Arabic in the last one thousand years is fewer than those translated into Spanish in one year. There is little reason to suppose this has changed.¹ It is the result of many factors, but one major factor is that authoritarian dictators in the region want to keep the people over whom they rule as ignorant of facts as possible, so it will be easier to control them.

But things are changing because of the Internet. The Internet has the possibility of bringing the Enlightenment to the Arab world in the same way the printing press did for the West. This view is affirmed by secular activist Maryam Namazie: “The Internet is doing to Islam what the printing press did in the past to Christianity. Social media has not only given countless young people access to ‘forbidden’ ideas and allowed them a space to express themselves where none existed—but it has also helped them find each other, share their stories and see that they are not alone.”²

Up to 175 million Arab-speakers use the Internet, many of whom are fairly active users and connected on social media.³ While the Internet still reaches less than 50 percent of the total Arab population, many of the users are young and perhaps more open than their elders to new ideas. “In the Arab countries’ populations, young people are the fastest-growing segment, some 60 percent of the population is under 25 years old, making this one of the most youthful regions in the world, with a median age of 22 years compared to a global average of 28,” notes YouthPolicy.org.⁴

Many of these young people are looking online for answers to satisfy their curious minds, disillusioned by the “knowledge” they are fed by their rulers and their fundamentalist allies. And their search is bearing encouraging fruit.

For example, online projects have been launched by Arab youth to teach people about the theory of evolution;⁵ to link local groups in Iraq that teach people the importance of literacy and reading books;⁶ and to other amazing projects that are translating English and French books, articles, and videos into Arabic.⁷

For those of you who view the Muslim world purely from a security perspective, and if you view the War on Terror as first and foremost an ideological conflict between extremist orthodoxy and Enlightenment, then supporting Bayt Al Hikma 2.0 will be the best way to achieve that goal. Even better, if its goals are reached, the Arab people will benefit greatly from it for their own sake.

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Notes

1. From the Arab Human Development Report 2002, issued by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). http://www.economist.com/node/1213392.
2. Maryam Namazie, “Islam’s Non-believers.” October 17, 2016. http://maryamnamazie.com/islams-non-believers/.
3. “Internet World Stats.com, Arabic Speaking Internet Users Statistics.” http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats19.htm.
4. YouthPolicy.org, “Middle East and North Africa: Youth Facts.” http://www.youthpolicy.org/mappings/regionalyouthscenes/mena/facts/.
5. https://www.facebook.com/TheTheoryOfEvolution/
6. https://www.facebook.com/aqraanaaqra/
7. Terry Firma, “The Arabic Translation of The God Delusion Has Reportedly Been Downloaded 10 Million Times.” Patheos.com, May 11, 2106. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/05/11/the-arabic-translation-of-the-god-delusion-has-reportedly-been-downloaded-10-million-times/.