Contemporary challenges to Islam and

the ways to tackle those

Mushtaq Ahmad
Mahindro
The challenges:
1. Division of the Islamic world on sectarian differences mainly Sunni Islam and
Shia Islam
2. The concept and relevancy of militancy in Islam with reference to religious
extremism and intolerance, and terrorism
3. Non-incorporation of scientific education in the Madrasa educational curriculum
4. Non-adherence to Islamic moral principles and practices in general and
particularly those at the helm of affairs.
5. Non-democratic and authoritarian regimes in most of the Islamic world.
6. Low literacy rate
7. The corrupt political and bureaucratic elite
8. Very weak or totally non-existence of ‘institution of public accountability.’
9. Nonperforming OIC
10. Non boosting of mutual trade and investment
11. Little emphasis on Scientific Research and development
 Potential
• 57 Muslim states in the world with a total population of 1.7 billion.
• They make around 25% of the world population constituting the second
largest religious group after Christianity.
• About 62% of the Muslims live in the Asia-Pacific region (from Turkey
to Indonesia).
• The largest Muslim country population wise is Indonesia followed by
Pakistan.
• They have a combined GDP on nominal basis of $ 7 trillion.
• By per capita GDP, Qatar is the wealthiest country with per capita
income fluctuating between $66,000 and $88,000.
 The birth of OIC and its performance
• Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) came into being in 1969. That
happened when Israel defeated Arab states in the June 1967 war, and burning
incident of Al-Aqsa mosque took place in 1969.
• They remain divided on various counts including sectarian differences like Shia
and Sunni.
• Ten years long war of attrition (1979-89) between Iran and Iraq
• Middle East crisis involving Syria, Iraq, and Yemen supported by Saudi Arabia
and Iran to the opponent groups on the fault lines of Shia Islam and Sunni Islam.
OIC badly failed to play any role in resolving differences among the Muslim
states what to talk about the issues confronted by the Muslim minorities around
the world.
 Education domain
• The Islamic world is yet to enter into the scientific age and develop the
knowledge-based competitive outlook, the door of which they have shut
for the last 400 years.
• Their preference for a quality education can be judged from the fact that
there is not a single university in the whole Islamic world amongst the
top 100 universities of the world. Only one institution has placed the
Middle East University of Technology Ankara, Turkey at 76th position.
Where as this number should have been 25 when judged on the basis of
their proportionate population.
Against the world average of 86.3 literacy percentage
few Muslim countries are as below:

Afghanistan=38.2, Bangladesh=72.8, Egypt=75.2, Iraq=43.7,

Morocco=72.4, Nigeria=59.6, Pakistan=56.4, Sudan=53.5,
Yemen=70.1.
 Research & Development
Expenditure on R&D in some of the Islamic countries in billions
of U.S. dollars PPP is as under:
• Turkey= 15.3, Malaysia= 10.6, Egypt= 6.2, Pakistan= 2.4, Indonesia=
2, and Saudi Arabia= 1.8
• Whereas it is $511 for USA, $451 for China, $66.5 for India, and $33.7
for Taiwan.
• This shows that education and R&D is still a non- priority in the
whole Islamic world.
 Quality of life
That is good health, education, housing, money, etc.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD) observed that the U.S. leads the world in material
conditions. Other strong performers in material conditions are
Canada, Luxembourg, and Australia.
• There is not any worth mentioning Islamic country except
Turkey comparatively performing better on material conditions.
 How to tackle?
1. Adherence to the Islamic faith and principles in letter and spirit which
enshrines to hold the rope of Allah with a firm grip and not to fight among
themselves.
2. Disdaining and rejecting all other considerations including the sectarian
differences for the mutual economic growth and wellbeing as has been done
by EU, ASEAN and SCO like organizations or even asked for by the Islamic
faith.
3. However, it is expected that after the ongoing war of attrition among the
Islamic belligerents and the resultant mutual economic bleeding they will learn
a lesson which was learnt by the European imperialist powers after fighting the
two world wars.
Thank you