Social and economic development are the key to combating terrorism and dispelling stereotypes of violence and injustice in the Muslim world, Malaysia's prime minister told a conference Sunday.
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told a forum on economic development Muslim nations would see peace and stability only when justice and the rule of law were in place and women were fully empowered.
"People whose legitimate needs and aspirations are met will see little cause to commit crime, join an insurgency or engage in terrorism," he said. He told scholars and policymakers that Muslims must be allowed to chose how they are governed. "To fully recover their dignity and be worthy of the term 'developed'... Muslim nations must no longer be occupied by a foreign power or be oppressed by their own," he told the forum.
Abdullah hailed the Muslim democracies of Indonesia, Turkey and Malaysia, the role of women in politics in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Indonesia, and the positive economic growth across the Muslim world. "The identification of Islam and Muslims with violence and instability, poverty and illiteracy, injustice and inequity is therefore highly misleading," he said.
Abdullah conceded that many Muslim countries were war-torn and suffered acute poverty, and vowed to push ahead with an ambitious development plan set out by the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference two years ago. "Justice, the rule of law, participatory governance, respect for the rights of all, Muslims as well as non-Muslims, and women as well as men ... These were all hallmarks of Islamic governance and civilisation," he said.
"These virtues have dulled in parts of the Muslim world today. We will not become fully developed until we have restored them." Islam is the official religion in Malaysia, but the Southeast Asian nation positions itself as a moderate country where the significant Hindu, Christian and Buddhist populations are free to practice their faiths. However, a series of court cases - notably on conversions from Islam - has called that status into question.