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By Saleem H Ali

David Brooks of the New York Times wrote a rather controversial article last month titled "The Tel Aviv Cluster," in which he enumerated the accomplishments ofIsraelis in particular, and Jews in general. Brooks noted that, Jews "make up 0.

2 percent of the world population.. but 27 percent of the Nobel physics laureates and 31 percent of the medicine laureates." The Nobel prize -- for better or for worse -- has become a touchstone for measuring success. Since many Muslims often see themselves in competition with other Abrahamic faiths, it is worth pondering the comparison a bit further.

While many Islamic countries claim to have been victimized by the "war on terror", it is interesting to note that since September 11, 2001, three of the six individual Nobel peace laureates have been Muslims. Their area of recognition has spanned from human rights activism (Shirin Ebadi, 2003) to nuclear vigilance (Muh

ammad El Baradei, 2005) to micro-credit entrepreneurship (Muhammad Yunus, 2006).

What is perhaps even more astonishing is that in the 108-year history of the Nobel peace prize there are only two other Muslims who have been so honored. AnwarSaadat (1978) and Yassir Arafat shared the prize with Israeli leaders for highlyvariable and controversial contributions to building peace in the Middle East.

Out of more than five hundred Nobel laureates in the sciences, only two have been of Muslim lineage. Pakistan can claim one of them: Abdus Salam, who shared theprize in physics in 1979, and memorably wore a shervani and turban to the awardceremony in Sweden. However, as a member of the Ahmadiya community, he was regr

ettably spurned at home as a non-Muslim and died in 1996 without fully being able to contribute to science education in Pakistan, despite his noblest intentions

. Dr. Ahmed Zewail, an Egyptian-American chemist based at the California Institute of Technology received the prize for chemistry in 1999 and is the Muslim world's sole Nobel science star. He is clearly in high demand for this singular status and has also been appointed by President Obama as one of his "science envoys."

The reason for the paucity of Muslim laureates in the sciences is perhaps the relative intellectual inertia in the educational institutions in many Muslim countries. There is a tendency for many Muslims to atavistically celebrate the accomplishments of tenth-century Muslim mathematicians, while investing little in developing contemporary educational capacity. Far too often we hear from imams aboutthe etymology of algebra coming from Arabic and the pharmaceutical accomplishme

nts of Avicenna but do we ask why more of such great scholars have not been seenfor a thousand years in Islamic countries? Furthermore, it is important to remember that the golden age of Islam was also its most pluralistic and even then there were fundamentalist forces who constantly threatened these scientists. Let us not forget the ruins of Madinat-al-Zahra, once a show-piece of Islamic art andlearning, just outside Cordoba, which was destroyed not by any "kuffar" but ins

tead by radical and retrogressive Muslim factions.

Those Muslims who are educated and proceed to develop successful professional careers are often sanguine with a comfortable job but would rather not invest in cutting-edge creativity. An interesting example is the medical profession in whic

h many Muslims, and indeed Pakistani Muslims, have excelled considerably. However, most of these brilliant doctors are focused on making money in clinical practice rather than in creative research which would lead to laurels such as the Nob

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el prize. There is cultural complacence that leads to a mindset where success ismarked by simply making a good living for the family, contributing some earning

s to charity and then living a lavish life.

As for the recent Muslim peace laureates what is even more striking is that many

Muslims have rejected their efforts and refused to accept them as role models,labelling them instead as stooges of the West.

I was amazed at the reaction of one Canadian Muslim professor to the Nobel Prizeawarded to Muhammad Yunus. There was spiteful criticism of Dr Yunus as a narcis

sist who was charging the destitute exorbitant un-Islamic interest rates. As with Shirin Ebadi and Muhammad ElBaradei, many Muslims also consider Dr Yunus a "stooge of the West". While there are some valid critiques of the Grameen Bank model in Bangladesh, it is unfortunate that any novel idea has to be met with such contrarian zeal with few alternative solutions. The overall picture is fairly cle

ar: Bangladesh is at least showing strongly positive signs of development, as measured by indicators developed by Pakistan's own celebrated economist, the lateMahbub-ul-Haq (who may well have become the first Muslim to win the Nobel Prizein economics had he lived long enough). According to the director of the UN's Human Development Report, Kevin Watkins, Bangladesh has seen child mortality falling at an annual rate 50 percent higher than India and in 2006 the child survivalrate is better in Bangladesh than in either India or Pakistan. This is especial

ly remarkable for a country that has all natural odds against it with annual floods, cyclones and a capricious agricultural climate.

Let us now turn to another Muslim Nobel laureate, Orhan Pamuk of Turkey who won

the Nobel Prize for literature. Given the attendance of the Turkish leadership at this year's "U.S. Islamic World Forum" , understanding his place in this pantheon is quite significant as well. The late Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz is theonly other Muslim writer to have won this prize. Both of these writers have bee

n known to marginalize their Islamic identity at various times, and perhaps theliterature prize mirrors the peace prize in its political message. Just as Gandhi was denied the peace prize despite being an inspiration to so many later laureates, some Muslim writers may claim a measure of discrimination here, contendingthat only a certain liberal elite is even considered seriously. In the case of

Mr Pamuk, one Turkish writer commented in the Wall Street Journal that he "has not taught anyone anything they didn't already know but has made precisely the right noises that the progressive arbiters of taste in Europe like to hear".

While it may be argued that the literature, peace and economics prizes are politicized, there is little doubt that the science prize is quite authentic in its measure of excellence. This is where Muslims should admire our Jewish brethren and learn from them rather than grumbling about discrimination.

Alfred Nobel, the man who perfected the alchemy of dynamite, could scarcely haveimagined how momentous his legacy would be for times to come. Every autumn we a

wait the announcements from Scandinavia about this most coveted of international

honors. As the pantheon of laureates grows larger and more diverse, the Islamiccontribution to this prize remains relatively small. This is a time for introsp

ection among Muslims and non-Muslims alike regarding the means and merits of suc

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h rewards, and how best to use them as incentives for improving the human condition.

Dr Saleem H Ali is associate professor of environmental planning at the University of Vermont. His latest book is "Treasures of the Earth: Need, Greed and a Sus

tainable Future" (Yale University Press, 2009)