Prof. Komaruddin Hidayat, the rector of Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN), wrote an interesting column in Jakarta’s leading newspaper on Indonesian Islamicity. His article is a rejoinder to a study conducted by Scheherazade S. Rehman and Hossein Askari from George Washington University.
Published in the Berkeley-based Global Economy Journal, Volume 10, 2010, this study examines if policies of the Muslim world were founded on Islamic teachings in comparison to those in non-Muslim countries. All up, 208 countries were studied.
Indicators such as economic opportunity, economic freedom, equal access to education, corruption, financial systems and human rights were used to measure the degree of Islamicity in those countries.
The results were hilarious. “Most self-declared and labeled Islamic countries are not conducting their affairs in accordance with Islamic teachings — at least when it comes to economic, financial, political, legal, social and governance policies.”
Full article here
