Pictured: Ireland, a country more Islamic than Malaysia – or any other Muslim-majority nation. Photo: C B / Flickr
A recent study has found that the country that most closely follows the Islamic principles laid out in the Qur’an is Ireland – and that no country with a Muslim-majority population even made the top 25 on the study’s list.
Even the Jewish state of Israel, the republic of Singapore and decidedly non-Muslim nations such as Denmark and Sweden ranked higher than any Muslim-majority country.
Hossein Askari, Professor of International Business and International Affairs at George Washington University and his colleague Dr Scheherazde S Rehman conducted the study and applied an ‘Islamicity Index’ to the nations they researched for their list, based on the ideals of Islam in the areas of a society’s economic achievements, governance, human and political rights, and international relations.
Of all the Muslim-majority countries in the world, Malaysia came closest to the Islamicity Index’s KPI, coming in at #33. Kuwait is the only Arab country to come in under the #50 mark at #42. Saudi Arabia was rated at #91, with Qatar coming in at #111.
By contrast, Ireland at #1 (in terms of ‘Economic Islamicity’) was joined by Denmark, Luxembourg an Sweden at second, third and fourth places respectively. The United Kingdom came in at #5, Singapore was ranked #7, while The United States was ranked #15.
Israel, popularly the target of anti-Semitic hate by many Muslims and Arabs and popularly portrayed as an enemy of Islam, merited #27 on the list, higher than any Muslim-majority country on the planet, Malaysia included.
According to a report by The Irish Times, last November Professor Askari said, “We must emphasize that many countries that profess Islam and are called Islamic are unjust, corrupt, and underdeveloped and are in fact not ‘Islamic’ by any stretch of the imagination.”
“If a country, society, or community displays characteristics such as unelected, corrupt, oppressive, and unjust rulers, inequality before the law, unequal opportunities for human development, absence of freedom of choice (including that of religion), opulence alongside poverty, force, and aggression as the instruments of conflict resolution as opposed to dialogue and reconciliation, and, above all, the prevalence of injustice of any kind, it is prima facie evidence that it is not an Islamic community,” he said.
“Islam is, and has been for centuries, the articulation of the universal love of Allah for his creation and for its unity, and all that this implies for all-encompassing human and economic development,” he concluded.
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