If you thought Saudi Arabia, Iran or Malaysia are the most Islamic among all the Muslim-majority countries, you could be mistaken. A US university study finds that the self-proclaimed Islamic countries lag behind most non-Muslim secular states in reflecting non-spiritual Islamic teachings, values, practices and institutions.
In non-spiritual matters, “Islamic” countries are underperforming in reflecting the teachings of the Holy Qur’ān and Sunnah, according to a global survey by two George Washington University professors. Their latest study shows Denmark as the country which best reflected Islamic teachings, values and institutions in 2022, replacing New Zealand which had remained on top for six consecutive years until 2021. Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Ireland have been among the top-five lists of countries that best follow the precepts of Islam.
In the latest “Islamicity” (Islamiyat or reflection and manifestation of Islamic teachings of the Qur’ān and Sunnah) survey conducted by professors Scheherazade S Rehman and Hossein Askari, no Muslim-majority country has counted among the top 40 countries in Islamicity Index since 2010, when the survey started. The South-east Asian nation is ranked 43, while the United Arab Emirates is placed at 48, Indonesia at 62, Saudi Arabia at 90, Türkiye at 100, Pakistan at 136, Iran at138 and Afghanistan at 148, just above Syria at the bottom of the list of 149 countries.
The study claims that every year secular nations have consistently complied with Islamic principles in non-spiritual matters more than Muslim countries. The countries are ranked on four main factors under four indices: Economic, Legal and Governance, Human and Political Rights, and International Relations. No wonder then that Japan at 15 and Singapore at 26 are found to be “more Islamic” than all Muslim-majority countries studied. The Islamicity Index, which ranks countries on certain features emphasised in Islamic teachings, is based on indicators of Islam according to the Qur’ān and the life of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
KEY CRITERION
The indices, compiled by the Islamicity Foundation, a US-based non-profit organisation, measure world governments by how well they adhere to the Islamic principles set forth in the Qur’ān, including adherence to interest-free finance, equality of education, property rights and animal rights, among others. As the study is premised on Qur’ānic goals for a successful Muslim community and the extent of a society’s adherence to its institutional recommendations of good governance, it does not include the personal duties required of Muslims, such as belief commitment, prayers, fasting and Hajj (pilgrimage).
“Indeed, Islamic thoughts promote political and individual freedom, rule of law, accountability of rulers and governments, and socio-economic justice,” the academics observed. The indices introduce a toolkit for the citizens and policymakers in Muslim countries to ensure their government’s policies adhere to the teachings of the holy book (Qur’ān) and prescriptions of the Prophet ﷺsurrounding economic opportunities, legal and governance affairs, human and political rights, and international relations.
In the first part of their study paper, the academics presented what they believe should be the characteristics and scaffolding of an “Islamic” country. “We base our depiction on the Qur’ān, and the life, practices and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ– the two principal channels that provide Muslims with the road map.” In the second part, they developed an index to measure the “Islamicity” of 208 countries’ adherence to Islamic principles.
To classify countries as Muslim and non-Muslim and to gauge the practice of Islam, they used the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) member states as the benchmark and investigated whether they reflect the human, social, economic and governance teachings of Islam and what is their degree of Islamicity. To answer this question and to provide a roadmap to improving a country’s Islamicity, they then designed for 151 countries, including 40 Muslim countries, an Overall Islamicity Index (OII) and the four other indices mentioned above. The OII scores and ranks all countries using a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is highly un-Islamic and 10 is highly Islamic.
To measure the degree of Islamicity of Muslim countries, the index investigates the development and enhancement of i) free markets and strong economic performance, ii) good governance and rule of law, iii) societies with well-formed human and civil rights and equality, and iv) cordial relations and meaningful contributions to the global community.
To build the Islamicity Indices, the professors considered all those governments which profess Islamic teaching as the guiding principle, or one of the primary principles, for governance as Muslim countries. In this regard, the study distinguishes the OIC members as a good representation of countries that profess Islam at the national level. They needed data for the OIC’s 40 member countries that have either i) governments that have adopted Islam as the official state religion, or ii) Islam as their primary religion, or iii) a significant Muslim population, or d) simply declared themselves as an Islamic republic.
DEGREE OF COMPLIANCE
The Economic Index measures achievements in economic justice, job creation, sustainableeconomic growth and adoption of sound and consistent economic and financial practices. The Legal and Governance Index comprises five fundamental areas of legal and governance principles and 13 variables or proxies. The five principal areas are: legal integrity; prevention of corruption; safety and security; management; and governance and government effectiveness. The Human and Political Rights Index measures human development, civil and political rights and social well-being. The International Relations Index assesses two core indicators of position of peacefulness and militarisation.
The professors claim they failed to see in Muslim countries “a high degree of compliance with the rules outlined in the Qur’ān and practised by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. “We did not look for how many times a day Muslims prayed or if they made the pilgrimage to Makkah. These and more are personal practices. Instead, we were looking for the manifestation of Qur’ānic teachings in the country’s institutional scaffolding and in its social, economic and governance practice. We could not see the socio-economic outcomes that we would expect from rule-compliant Muslim countries. We realised that a benchmark or index was needed to assess the degree of rule compliance or ‘Islamicity’, to serve as an indicator of needed political, social, and economic reforms.”
Prof Askari says their results confirmed the cryptic remark of Egyptian Islamic scholar and Grand Mufti of Egypt Muhammad Abduh nearly 150 years ago: “I went to the West and saw Islam, but no Muslims; I got back to the East and saw Muslims, but not Islam.” Mr Abduh was the central figure of the Nahḍa (Arab awakening) movement and Islamic Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The study shows developed countries with more effective institutions, stronger economies and higher respect for human rights and the rule of law do well on the Islamicity Indices and follow the precepts of Islam more closely than the Muslim-majority countries. The richer the country, the better its scores and rank in the indices. However, even low-income countries can perform well in some indices as is evident by their high ranking in the International Relations Index.
Looking across the board, freedom and equitable opportunity for self-development, the rule of law and justice are at the foundation of successful societies, the study observes. The Islamicity Indices provide the moral instrument for achieving such successful societies. They provide a measurable instrument for assessing success and shortcoming and the areas requiring the most urgent attention. Governments and the people can peacefully agree to adopt such indices and set a timetable to achieve an agreed upon improvement in their institutional structure. In this way, they can achieve peaceful and measurable reform.
The professors admit their approach does not conform to the Maqasid Shari’ah (the goals of Shari’ah) but stress that the foremost Shari’ah requirement is a commitment to one’s Islamic beliefs. The acceptance of Islam’s fundamental axioms of Tawheed, Nubuwwah and Ma’ad require manifestation through commensurate action. Tawheed is recognising Allah as the One and Only Creator and Sustainer of the entire Creation. It also implies the unity of creation and refusal of any kind of discrimination and disunity. Nubuwwah refers to the prophets and messengers entrusted with divine revelations for the guidance of mankind. Ma’ad establishes accountability and justice, for mankind will be judged and rewarded in accordance with their rule compliance or non-compliance.
They say from the Islamic perspective, self-purification is not only crucial for professing Tawheed but also to enable development because it requires present consciousness and awareness of the self and its Creator. This ultimately leads to embodying Islamic virtues and compliance with the rules and principles prescribed by Allah.
ROBUST INSTITUTIONS
The academics say to build strong institutions necessary for improving their governance practices and socioeconomic progress, Muslim countries should more closely follow the precepts of Islam and teachings of the Qur’ān and Sunnah. Only when these countries adopt effective institutions that embody freedom and justice and are economically progressive, respective of human and political rights and in harmony with the international community will they truly internalise and execute Islamic standards of governance.
Building the conditions for the society’s prosperity and growth requires the development ofstrong and robust institutions, the study says. Effective institutions are the bedrock of successful countries. The structural and moral scaffolding offered by institutions and justice are found to be instrumental to society’s growth and progress. However, it takes much time to establish robust institutions, as is evident in the case of Muslim-majority countries that for centuries have suffered from missed opportunities to adopt effective policies and change and transform their weak institutions.
As to how this turnaround in Muslim countries can be initiated, developed and sustained, the academics say for this Muslims would have to better understand Qur’ānic teachings and strive to establish effective institutions based on the Qur’ān and Sunnah to replace their weak institutions and retrograde economies.
[The writer is a Singapore-based senior journalist. He can be contacted at +65 91195711 & [email protected]]