Central to the Arab spring has been the dire economic straits the Muslim world finds itself in. Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation which was the catalyst to the resultant mass demonstrations that engulfed the Muslim world was due in part to the economic situation in Tunisia, which is common across the Muslim world. It beggars belief how a region which possesses the world’s largest oil and gas fields, the world’s largest Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWF) and has annual revenues of £500 billion can ever have economic problems.
Unemployment, poverty, soaring food prices, economic insecurity and corruption have all become the norm as many have attempted to make ends meet when the system constructed by the colonial West works against them.
With this in mind, we present an outline of a few polices that a future Khilafah may pursue based on the Islamic economic system and on the current economic realities of the Muslim lands.
• The Khilafah will focus on job creation
o Much of the Muslim world requires huge investment in construction of infrastructure and heavy industry. Such a policy will create millions of jobs and deal with the unemployment situation in the region. It will also move people out of poverty and allow the region to make use of its disposable income, further stimulating the economy
• Create public works projects such as motorways, bridges and infrastructure development programmes which will not just help communities but create jobs
o Incentivise private companies with contracts which require labour
• The Khilafah will pursue industrialisation
o Expansion of defence industry. This would act as deterrent and lead to innovation of technologies
o Share technological expertise between Muslims regions as each country is at different stages in defence development
o Develop high tech weapons
• The regions countries need to take control of its raw materials and expand its mineral processing infrastructure.
o Expand and construct steel and iron mills, refineries, automobile industries and Chemical and petrochemical industries.
o A nuclear programme should also be started to act as a deterrent to those who have designs on the Muslims lands
• The Khilafah will use all proceeds from public assets such as oil and gas for the interests of the Ummah (citizens) to focus on job creation and pursue industrialisation
• The region should aim to achieve near self-sufficiency in agricultural production.
o Grains like wheat, rice, maize, and oilseed provide the basic ingredients for a vast variety of food production. In contrast to current farming methods, the role of the state should be to promote competitive food, farming and fisheries industries. This will promote a thriving rural economy supported by Government funds from the Khilafah to help poor farmers.
• Through the removal of Western rules and application of Islam’s economic rules sustainable economic growth can be achieved
o Taxation policy which is based on wealth rather than income will give citizens more disposable income which can be spent in the economy.
o Islam does not have complex rules for taxation and has only seven revenue sources for the state, in this way the rules for taxation are much simpler, cheaper to administer
o The removal of interest (riba) from the economy removes the parallel financial economy and in this way an Islamic economy will have real growth built upon wealth which is invested in the economy rather than debt.
o The Islamic ruling on the gold standard as a currency creates a stable economy allowing long term decisions to be made.
Sources:
The Quest for economic progress, an Islamic blueprint for Pakistan
Constructing an industrialised Muslim world
Policy paper – The Khilafah’s energy policy
New Book Coming Soon – Dilemmas of the Arab Spring
For the Muslim World, 2011 will remain long in the memory when the history books are finally written. What began with a single man in the markets of Tunisia spread to thousands on the streets in Cairo and evolved to hundreds of thousands demanding political change for the entire region. The self immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia led to a sweeping wave, which crossed the artificial borders in the Muslim lands
For the moment there has been no regime change in the Muslim world but a change in leadership has taken place in some countries. Western governments and media have branded the call for change in the region as a call for democracy and Western values of freedom and secularism. Some in the Muslim world have taken these concepts without understanding their true reality, in the hope that change comes to the region.
It is with this in mind we look at the dilemmas the Arab spring faces. The challenges in forming a new politics which creates an accountable government, allows the people to elect their rulers, have independent judiciaries, rights for citizens and an end to the police state.
Despite possessing abundant mineral and capital wealth this has only led to the prosperity for the ruling elites. The Muslim world needs a new economics and not more of the same failed policies designed in Western capitals. We will look at how economic development, job creation, economic growth, wealth distribution all rooted in Islam replace poverty, unemployment and underdevelopment.
The Arab spring saw men, women, old, young, Christian, Muslim, labourers and professionals take to the streets to remove their rulers. The West with their experience in nation building in Iraq and Afghanistan insist that the right of women, minorities, sects and religion are best preserved by secularism. We asses’ secularisms track record and look at what Islam – something indigenous to the region has to offer and the type of society that can be created.