ABSTRACT
The focus of Chapter 4 is the programmes of producing ‘Islamic Science’ (cIS) and ‘Islamisation of Science/Knowledge’ (IoK) which are popular among many groups of Muslims and in many Muslim countries. The main argument of the chapter is that all such programmes are doomed to failure. The arguments of the chapter are developed along the following lines. First, it is explained that the advocates of the programmes of producing cIS or IoK subscribe to mistaken images of science that are shaped by either a positivist or outmoded culturalist/interpretivist theories of science. Next, drawing on the distinction between ‘science’ and ‘technology’, introduced earlier, it is argued that while creating ‘Islamic’ or ‘indigenous’ sciences is impossible, constructing ‘Islamic’ or ‘indigenous’ technologies is, in principle, feasible. However, it is further explained that even in the case of ‘indigenous’ technologies, non-indigenous users can, with some adjustment, use the indigenous technologies in other contexts and even for purposes different from the purposes of their original inventors. Last, some of the more recent works on creating/constructing cIS and/or IoK are critically assessed to show that none of the arguments introduced by the advocates of the projects of cIS/IoK is tenable.
