Muslims only contribute 0.1 percent to scientific progress, but make up 25-26 percent of the world’s population, stated Ferghane Azihari, columnist for Figaro Magazine and author of the new book “Islam against Modernity.” Citing data from Saudi Arabia’s own Islamic Development Bank, Azihari pointed to what he called severe deficits in Islamic societies during his appearance on Points de Vue with the host Vincent Roux.
“When you look at the Muslim world as a whole, it still falls far short of the standards we are entitled to expect from modern societies,” said Azihari. “You know, you’re talking about Saudi Arabia. The Islamic Development Bank, which is based in Saudi Arabia and which, I believe, is hardly suspected of being Islamophobic, lamented a few years ago that the Muslim world was responsible for only 0.1% of original scientific discoveries, even though the Muslim world accounts for a quarter of the world’s population. So the Muslim world’s contribution to human progress is not at all commensurate with its demographic weight.”
"The Muslim world is responsible for only 0.1% of original scientific discoveries, even though it represents a quarter of the world's population."
Ferghane Azihar, author of "Islam Against Modernity," cites Islamic Development Bank data.
His book is making waves in France. pic.twitter.com/pmwxE2fQg1
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) February 1, 2026Azihari also noted that when experts talk about progress and inventions from the Muslim world, they are forced to go back hundreds of years to Medieval times.
“I’m not saying that Muslim societies have never been hotbeds of creativity and ingenuity. There are two things I’d like to point out. The first thing is that every time we want to attribute prestigious achievements to Islam, we keep going back to the Middle Ages, a fairly late period. What happened in the meantime? Secondly, Islam has taken over the Middle East, ‘one of the oldest crossroads of civilized peoples in the world,’ to quote the historian Fernand Braudel. Given the incredible intangible heritage that Muslims have inherited, giving birth to Averroës was the least we could do, and it has to be said that today this ancient crossroads of civilized peoples and men, as Braudel called it, is in a lamentable state, and I believe that it is the causes of this catastrophe that we must try to understand.
“It took Muslims three centuries after Gutenberg to adopt the printing press”
When he is accused of perhaps being a victim of “colonial thinking,” during the interview, he said that he did not think this was the case, and that “Muslims were the first to deplore the decadence of their own society, except that they were unfortunately incapable of drawing the right conclusions from it.”
He notes that he himself was born in the Muslim world and that his parents come from Comoros, a hardline Muslim country.
“I simply think that I have drawn the right conclusions from the inability of these societies to offer their inhabitants a decent life, which is why there are now far more Muslims migrating to Europe than there are Europeans migrating to Muslim societies,” he stated.
Notably, he says that there are clear signs that Muslims’ predicament cannot be attributed to colonialism and that Muslim society, even before it was colonized in some parts, already had virtually no human rights.
“So there was Western colonization, you’re perfectly right, but to attribute the misery of today’s Muslim world to colonization would be to pretend that these societies were human rights El Dorados before the arrival of the Europeans. I don’t think we can blame Westerners for the fact that it took Muslims three centuries after Gutenberg to adopt the printing press,” he said.
Azihari’s findings about the lack of Muslim innovation, scientific achievement, and progress may be controversial, but they are generally supported by research. The Islamic world, mostly the Middle East and North Africa, contributes only 1.5 percent of global patents as well, with some research putting this as high as 2.2 percent. However, if those patents are examined, it can also be found that a significant number of them are actually from Western companies and individuals. For example, in Saudi Arabia, the top patent filer by far is the state oil and gas giant Saudi Aramco. However, the top engineers and technical talent in the company are often employees from countries like the United States and Great Britain.
Slavery and Islam
This point further segways to the topic of slavery, which Azihari stated was only ended due to European intervention and philosophy.
“Before Western colonization, most Muslim societies were totally authoritarian, stratified societies, which were, moreover, slave-owning societies that practised slavery in proportions sometimes higher than those we find in the United States. The Sokoto Caliphate in what is now Nigeria was one of the largest slave-owning societies of its time. What we need to remember is that these societies were incapable of abolishing slavery on their own initiative. There has never been, in Islamic lands, the equivalent of the Valladolid controversy which, in the 16th century, involved Spanish theologians challenging the very principle of slavery; there has never been the equivalent of a Condorcet; there has never been the equivalent of a Victor Schoelcher or a Lincoln, and so we cannot accuse Europeans of being responsible for evils which long predate their irruption into the Muslim world.”
Wealthy Muslim countries
The host further agues that there are certain economic powerhouses in the Middle East, and that they should not be discounted, stating: “You talk about a pitiful state, but this is the Arabian Peninsula, this is Saudi Arabia, this is the Emirates, this is Qatar, this is Dubai, this is Abu Dhabi, these are places that have become economic powerhouses and the place to be.”
Azihari does not even mention that much of the wealth of these areas is still almost entirely driven by energy, namely oil and gas, but does respond that much of the wealth is generated by autocratic means.
“So it’s true that there are rich places in the Muslim world, but in the same way that I think it would be wrong to use Kim Jong-un’s wealth as an excuse to say that North Korea is a prosperous country, I don’t think that exceptions invalidate an overall picture that is, after all, quite appalling, and I would add that Muslims did not wait for my book to take stock of the situation and make this rather deplorable observation, since they were the first to deplore the decadence and decline of their own society, long before Western colonial expansion,” he stated.
Practical implications for Europe
Islam may not be the only role at work, however, in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, for instance, has the highest rates of inbreeding in the world, leading to a wide range of genetic diseases. Inbreeding has been common throughout the Middle East for many centuries, which can lead to societal-wide issues. Most of the world outside of parts of Asia (Japan, China, and South Korea), Europe, and the United States produces very little in terms of patents and scientific innovation. This is especially relevant when assessing whether the EU should pursue its current program of encouraging mass immigration from these regions. For example, the EU’s new Erasmus program could see millions of students from Africa and the Middle East arrive in Europe, with the argument that these students will boost Europe’s future innovation success.
The hope is that these students somehow create industries and technology that Europe has produced for decades; however, all data shows that these hopes are likely unjustified. Within Europe itself, the Arab and African populations have either been relegated to welfare or to low-income jobs, many of which still require welfare to survive. Germany’s Turkish population, for instance, has been in the country for decades and is still far behind in terms of academic achievement and innovation. In fact, by some metrics, it is still among the worst integrated for groups in the nation.
Much of the data about migrants opening new businesses in Europe is also fudged. For instance, every time a foreigner opens a döner store, a corner deli, a bar, a shisha shop, or a shop selling produce, these are all, of course, businesses. However, the reality is the hey are not high-value manufacturing and technologically innovative ventures that are going to fuel a country’s economic future. Arguably, countries like the United States, where Jason Huang and many other Asian entrepreneurs have launched world-changing businesses, are few and far between in Europe. Even in the United States, mass migration is costing state budgets tens of billions a year through healthcare, housing, and social benefits.
The same situation is playing out in Europe, costing nations tens of billions every year, and despite claims of economic renaissance, many migrants are a net drain on the fiscal health of nations, no matter what age they are, including prime working years.
