Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Chris Hourani Cultural Entry #2
Chris Hourani
Socialism and Islam
Since becoming independent from colonial powers, many of the relatively young Islamic nations have struggled to find a balance between western economic ideologies and religion. Although existing in a predominantly capitalist world, the Muslim world has found socialism to be most compatible with the Islamic religion. The Prophet Muhammad advocated for social equity and some of his companions went as far as to promote the redistribution of wealth from the ruling classes to lower classes during the Uthman caliphate. The amiable attitude towards socialism stems from the egalitarian nature of Islam amongst social groups. Islamic socialism can also draw roots from Muhammad’s rule in Medina, creating a quasi-welfare state. This relationship between ideology and religion can be seen in modern nations with significant Muslim populations.
This historical friendliness toward socialism manifested itself in many of the young countries with Muslim majority populations after the decolonization of World War II. After independence from France, the Algerian FLN, which led the fight for independence, had to decide what type of government to implement. They chose to accept socialism as the official economic system of Algeria while having Islam be the official religion. Similarly, the nationalist Neo-Dustur party in Tunisia was tightly knit to trade Unions such as the UGTT during its struggle for independence. As a result, they too chose to adopt a pseudo-socialist economic policy. This pattern repeated itself in other countries. The Socialist party in mostly Muslim Azerbaijan had a sizeable influence over that country’s politics.
What really makes this phenomenon interesting is the fact that even after adopting socialism, these countries were not black listed as communist nations. With the U.S.-Soviet dichotomy ever present in the early years of these countries’ modern history, they were able to avoid bumping heads with either superpower. They chose to follow and stick with the non-alignment and were able to navigate the treacherous waters of diplomacy during the Cold War without any major conflict arising from economic ideology. In the wake of the Arab Spring of 2011, many people from the West have stated that Western-style democracy and capitalism is the best form of government and economic system for the revitalized nations. Although this may seem logical and morally right from the perspectives of many Westerners, it cannot be neglected that religion, generally playing a larger role in the society of Muslim countries, plays and will play a major role in the decision of what road to take in those countries.
Sources:
Islam, the Straight Path by John Esposito
Modern Algeria by John Reudy
A History of Modern Tunisia by Kenneth J. Perkins
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