Muslims must return to the Islamic concept of Ummah, the Muslim community, and to a certain extent downgrade the Western nation-state concept and the consequent narrow nationalism.
This was stated here on Sunday by former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Bin Mohamad in his special luncheon address on 'Islamic Renaissance: Triumph Over the Odds, Synergy in Action, Progress for All', on the second day of 'World Islamic Economic Forum' organised by Asia Strategy and Leadership Institute (Asli) in collaboration with Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), Islamic Centre for Development and Trade and Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He said that thus the wealth, "which actually belongs to Allah, and the rich are merely its custodians", can then be deployed over all members of the Muslim Ummah. This deployment should be through investment in needed infrastructure in the countries unable to finance them. The 'custodians' should earn a fair return from these investments, he added.
Mahathir said these infrastructures are wealth generating. Even while under construction they will create jobs and businesses in the poor countries. Their maintenance and operation will also do the same. These infrastructures should include railways, roads, ports, airports, power plants, especially hydro power plants, water supply and irrigation projects. With these well-managed infrastructures there will be a lot of spin-off and growth in the economy of the poorer Muslim countries.
He said since the rich Muslim countries are under-populated, they should develop human resources in the heavily-populated poorer Muslim countries. Schools, universities and skills training institutes should be set up and generous numbers of scholarships should be provided so as to produce educated and skilled human resources who can work in their own countries or in the countries contributing to this scheme. If there are no job opportunities in the Muslim world the trained personnel may be allowed to work anywhere else.
He said that Muslim countries with the ability to do so can invest in industries in countries with big populations. If there is no know-how or technological capability in the rich countries they can have joint ventures with people who have technology or know-how, whether Muslim or otherwise, or they can buy the technology. It is important that Muslims should learn the management of these industries.
He said that if these steps are taken it is fully possible for a few Muslim countries to achieve the developed country status. But Muslims must be careful not to follow blindly the liberalism of the developed countries of the West, he warned.
Mahthir said that for the renaissance to be meaningful, Muslims must preserve their religion and culture, particularly their moral values. Much of the problems, which plague the world today, are "due to pure greed". The currency traders are motivated by pure greed. The Muslims must reject the moral values which follow the decadence of the developed countries of the West, he added.
He rejected the allegations that Islam was spread by the sword, and said that Muslims traders who converted the Malay Rajas in Malaysia and elsewhere were not even dedicated Muslim missionaries, but by precept and by example they were able to show the goodness of Islam. The European traders who came East and also who went West ended up by conquering their trading partners, colonising their land and expropriating native land in order to set up new European counties. The Muslim did not use force to convert, he said, adding that after re-conquest of Spain, the Muslims and Jews were given three choices: leave Spain, convert to Christianity, or have their heads chopped of.
He said that Muslim renaissance would not lead to violent attempts at mass conversion, but the prosperous Muslim would help in progress of the world.
"What I have suggested in order to achieve Islamic Renaissance are doable. But, for reasons, which I don't understand, the Muslims would not want to do it. It is easier to raise hands in supplication and ask for the bounty of Allah," he sadly concluded.
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