Muslims, Science and the Nobel Prize

During the early years of Islam, many muslims pursued science and wrote great papers, theses and books which served as the foundation for modern science. Unfortunately, when the spirit of inquiry, broad-mindedness and pursuit of knowledge as a sacred duty was replaced by irrational lack of tolerance, the decline of the muslims started, and it is us muslims' fault.... we did not adhere to the great teachings and fell to in-fighting instead, laying the way open for outsiders to profit from our weaknesses. Yes, we have been manipulated and exploited by the powers that be, but only because we are dense enough to not to follow the great wisdom between us, the Holy Book, the Prophet's practice,the history of the Caliphate and the muslim rulers who followed and ruled over a great empire, honesty, fairness and justice for all, the openess of thought and the importance of the pursuit of education, the tolerance and the understanding, and all those attributes that make any nation great.
And as a non-muslim friend noted, back in those days there was no Nobel Prize otherwise many muslim names would have adorned the list!

Modern Science would have been impossible but for Muslim discoveries?

Question: ....and showing that modern science would have been impossible but for Muslim discoveries

Answer: I do not agree to this part of the statement….. muslims or anyone else can only advance in science if they keep their minds open to question and research, education and the pursuit of the frontiers of knowledge…. Quran is not a textbook of science___ yet whatever it contains is the absolute truth___ we can attempt to understand the various verses commenting on the physical world around us in the light of science, but we cannot ‘do’ science by studying the Quran alone. What Maurice Bucaille and others have done is simply reinterpreted the verses in the light of modern science. That is the difference between our religion and other religions__ while our religion, Islam, is based on truths and facts, other religions are based on baseless beliefs.
We cannot compel anyone to belief in the Islamic belief system, what we can do is fearlessly keep exploring the frontiers of knowledge and truth, discovering and showing just how compatible the two are!