Science in the Arab world has no value because it has no role, said former presidential scientific adviser Essam Heggy.
People in the Arab region are turned from people who have the right to determine their fate into a market to consume foreign goods, which is the real reason behind the deterioration of innovation and the moral destruction of innovators and thinkers, said Heggy while speaking with CNN Arabic on Wednesday.
Universities, which contain the Arab world's thinkers, are suffering from marginalization and scientific thinkers are forced to resort to migration, according to Heggy.
"The most important factor for innovation is freedom and liberty…and I am talking about social freedom like equality between men and women or Muslims and Christians," he added.
The lack of freedom of thought is the greatest propaganda for intolerance and terrorism in the region, he said.
The solution for the Arab world is one thing: that education becomes the primary target for the next phase and to dedicate all foreign aid to the Arab world, including the US aid to Egypt, to education, said Heggy.
Education only, not an armed state, will achieve security and make people respect treaties, he said.
Heggy stressed that Arab countries should be countries that have armed forces and not vice versa.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
