Abstract
Commences by presenting the present-day economic situation of Muslim-majority countries and examines the reasons for their low development, focusing on whether these are rooted in Islam. It explicates and critiques the work of Timur Kuran, the most extensive in the field. It proceeds to analyse the health and economic impact of the ‘five pillars of Islam’, in particular of the fasting month of Ramadan and estimates that this has a significant annual recessionary impact on the economy of about 3% per annum. There is an examination of the low status of women and high incidence of corruption in Muslim societies.
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Notes
- 1.
The Human Development Index is a composite of Gross National Income per capita, life expectancy at birth, and mean and expected years of schooling.
- 2.
Figures are for 2011 in Purchasing Power parity (PPP) US dollars.
- 3.
The variables used for the calculation of the Democracy Index are electoral process and pluralism; functioning of government; political participation; political culture; and civil liberties.
- 4.
Hostility to the ideas of such “heretics” could reach book-burning levels. Driss Habti gives the example of Ibn Rushd: “The political tensions during the rule of the Almohads in his [Ibn Rushd’s] lifetime did not seem to affect his productive appetite and relative peace and prosperity. His version of criticism applied Plato’s theories to his own time, discussing the areas where the system in Cordoba failed. He considered, at some point, that it was tyrannical from 1145 onwards during the reign of his patron, the sultan. The corollary was his arrest and exile to Marrakesh, while his books were burned” [italics added by RH]. The reason why he gained disfavour is probably owing to his pledge to rationalism and frank social criticism (Habti 2011, p. 83).
- 5.
This needs to be tempered by the fact that during and after the colonial era, the educated Arab elites used English or French.
- 6.
In stark contrast, in Lost History: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Scientists, Thinkers, and Artists—a most sympathetic and rather uncritical work on Islamic civilisation—Michael Hamilton Morgan argues that “the enlightened Muslim leadership of the early empire enables the rise of the various golden ages…the enlightened ideal, strong and often dominant from the seventh to fifteenth century, will always be there even if lost to history or deep in the background” (Morgan 2008, p. 254).
- 7.
This discussion of Ramadan is an elaboration of Hasan (2015).
- 8.
The 20 most corrupt countries are Cambodia, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Burundi, Syria, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Venezuela, Yemen, Eritrea, Libya, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iraq, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Sudan, Korea (North) and Somalia.
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Hasan, R. (2017). Islam and Development. In: Religion and Development in the Global South. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57063-1_2
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