KARACHI: In his article of November 13 titled “Why Muslim states fail”, Khaled Ahmed has produced yet another crisp and succinct analysis of what ails Pakistan and the Muslim world.
However, another point that must be highlighted, and which the writer only touched on in passing, is that the only successful Muslim states today are those that have a market economy. History tells us that liberal democracies have thrived only when present in a market economy and never in command economies.
This should be understood in the context of the fact, by and large, that most Muslims seem to believe as if a market economy is something that is inherently bad and they try and find an explanation for this in their understanding of their own faith. Hence, many Muslim countries that have market economies are run and fuelled in large part by non-Muslims. If this is taken to be true, then there is perhaps a need for Muslims to resolve issues they may have with a modern economic worldview.
Danish Ullah
Published in The Express Tribune, November 15th, 2011.
