The conference of Muslim scholars and intellectuals — called by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah to examine the conditions of the Ummah and seek the most effective solutions to the challenges facing it in the 21st century — closed recently without issuing any statement about its discussions. According to the report posted by the OIC Secretariat on its website, the discussions will be kept confidential. The report on the conference will be submitted to the leaders of the Ummah at their extraordinary summit to be held at Makkah before the end of this year. The summit’s aim is to explore ways and means of alleviating the present despair and despondency in the Islamic world.
It is good to engage intelligentsia and experts and elicit their ideas and thoughts for the agenda of the next OIC summit. Today, there are many challenges facing the Ummah. History will be watching the response of the Ummah with great interest because the way in which it respond will decide our fate as Muslims.
When we speak of developing a response, we must take into consideration three factors which, if misjudged or overlooked, can either undermine or derail the whole effort. These factors are: Understanding the context of challenge, comprehending its nature and assessing internal capabilities. All three must be consistent and aligned with the proposed strategy if we are to make the correct response. As far as context is concerned, two important shifts have introduced new variations into the world economy and international politics.
The first was at the beginning of the 21st century and affected the economy. It was the dawn of an era of revolution in knowledge and information. Knowledge and information became the new drivers of wealth creation, progress and security. Because of this shift, superior human resources, knowledge creation capabilities and e-readiness are now of critical significance in the development of nations. The shift has forced even developed nations to radically redesign and rethink their socioeconomic ideas and processes.
The second shift took place in world politics on Sept. 11, 2001. US President George W. Bush announced and initiated a global war on terrorism and two Muslim nations, Afghanistan and Iraq, became its first victims. The threat of a US attack on Syria and/or Iran exists. Powerful forces in the West steadily portray Islam as a terrorist religion and thus, Muslims as terrorists. The “war on terror” is likely to remain unpredictable — at least until the end of the Bush administration. Clearly, any sincere response by the Ummah must take into careful consideration both of these significant challenges.
Muslims account for 22 percent of the world’s population, numbering some 1.3 billion. This is greater than the combined populations of the US, Europe, and Japan. Muslim countries possess important economic resources such as oil, arable land coal, iron, uranium, tin, rubber, copper etc. Unfortunately, despite the possession of these resources, the Muslim world remains one of the most illiterate, malnourished, and least gender-sensitive. Of its 1.3 billion population, some 522 million — nearly half — live on less than one dollar a day. More than half of Muslim adults are illiterate and more than half of these illiterates are women.
The Muslim world with 22 percent of the world’s population has only two percent of the world’s GNP and is responsible for only 1.3 percent of world trade. No Muslim country appears in the top bracket of the United Nations Human Development Index. Despite their numbers, Muslims’ share of world income is less than six percent. The growth rate of Muslim countries in 2003 was 4.7 percent compared with 5.2 percent for other developing countries. Muslims also lag behind in all other economic indicators such as savings rate, capital formation etc. Despite regular declarations of brotherhood and intent, the level of intra-OIC trade remains dismally low.
In working out responses to this discouraging catalogue, OIC must avoid its usual empty rhetoric and unachievable aims which have done nothing but make the public both cynical and uninterested.
The response must involve genuine action and be both strategic and tactical. On the strategic level, there is a need to articulate a knowledge-led Vision 2020 for OIC countries, enabling them to transform their societies and economies. This vision will need to articulate four goals: Developing human resources, promoting good governance, achieving development and creating a good and just society.
Developing our human resources will have to include giving our people — particularly our young people — world class capabilities and possibilities, a safe environment and an education based on creativity, innovation, technology, enterprise, teamwork, marketable skills, ethics and values which will enable them not only to create but also to seize the opportunities available as a result of the knowledge and information revolution.
Good governance will build effective and stable social, economic, governmental and legal institutions that empower and serve the people by being responsive to their needs and aspirations. Real development must target developing globally competitive economic engines of wealth creation and growth, driven by knowledge based in turn on modern infrastructure, technological and marketing sophistication, sustainable development, global linkages, public/private partnership, improving the environment and an equitable distribution of prosperity in order to bring significant improvements in quality of life. The goals of the proposed Knowledge OIC Vision 2020 must be translated into specific actionable programs and targets which the Ummah can achieve by 2020. At the same time, the next OIC summit should also commit itself to some projects in order to demonstrate absolutely that it is serious about achieving the vision.
Some possibilities include providing financial assistance to at least 20 Muslim universities, enabling them to significantly upgrade their faculties, facilities and international reputations, bringing computers to every high school by 2010, achieving universal primary enrollment by 2015 and creating a Poverty Fund. We also need to create a new development-focused entity: The Islamic States Development Program (ISDP) in addition to the already-existing Islamic Development Bank (IDB), Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), The Islamic States Broadcasting Organization (ISBO) and the International Islamic News Agency (IINA).
Finally, OIC must clearly articulate and outline the concerns of the Ummah about a dialogue with the West in order to build a peaceful world; it must express unequivocally that it will strongly oppose any unilateral aggression against any Muslim country. Only implementation and action will change the course of history and bring us improvement. Talk without action will simply guarantee that we remain where we are and change nothing.
— Ahsan Iqbal is the former minister of economic planning, Pakistan. He is currently based in Madinah. Comments: [email protected]
