Oil and Islam: Social and Economic IssuesWiley, 1997 M08 4 - 352 pages During the 1970s and early 1980s, the Middle East and North Africa were perceived as being exceptionally successful, but now the region is viewed as a resounding economic and social failure. Islam is not only a religion, but also a political and social project. A major pretext of this work is to demonstrate how the tensions within Islamic movements feed directly into the economic, social, political, historical and religious arena of the region, and vice versa. An introductory chapter sets the context of the book. The core chapters of the book comprise an in-depth examination of the varied forms of oil revenue abuse. For examples, the past mismanagement of the tremendous wealth provided by oil. Following Islamic beliefs, revenue from oil should not finance wasteful consumption, but used instead for public welfare. Abstaining from interest calculations, there should be a case for keeping more oil in the ground. Indeed, oil has also stifled industrial development, and with declining oil revenues, the conflict between civilian and military priorities intensifies. While western interests have promoted arms spending, high population-growth expenditure reinforces the reality of the count-down to the post-oil era upon the Middle Eastern and North African oil exporters. So far the governments seem unwilling or unable to adapt and react. Furthermore, in the past oil has been used as a substitute for democracy. While the large oil revenues of the 1970s and early 1980s strengthened the position of autocratic rulers and weakened the private sector,repressive regimes have made Islam a source of criticism and opposition for the Western world. Following on from this, the book then looks forward to the problem of uniting the divergent interests in the spheres of oil and Islam into a cohesive whole. The book proposes that ideally Islamic governments would synchronise the depletion of oil reserves with investment in new productive assets. Islamic governments could also find ways to combine private, domestic and foreign interests in the oil industry. The main readership for this book will be policy-makers and professionals involved in development issues for Middle Eastern and North African affairs, and those with an interest in oil politics and Islamic studies. |
Contents
The social promise of Islam | 12 |
Merchants and soldiers in Islamic society | 59 |
Oil and Islamic economic principles | 104 |
Copyright | |
6 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
Abbasid agriculture Algeria Arab autocratic Caliph capital Central Asia centralised civilian conflict early East and North Eastern and North economic and political Egypt essentially European foreign fuels exports growth Hence ideological important income increasing interests intergenerational equity investment Iran Iranian Iranian revolution Iraq Iraqi Islamic economic Islamic economic principles Islamist Islamist movements Kazakh Kuwait land landowners Libya major merchant class Middle East Middle Eastern military expenditure military spending Muslim countries Muslim oil exporters Muslim societies Muslim world national oil company North Africa oil and gas oil exporting countries oil industry oil market oil policy oil prices oil reserves opposition organisation Ottoman Empire petroleum petroleum revenues population potential private sector problem production public sector reforms regime religion religious rentier represent revolution rising risk royal family rule rulers rural Saudi Arabia Shia clergy Soviet Sunni Syria technocratic trade tradition ulama Umayyad urban wealth Western zakat
References to this book
Addicted to Oil: America's Relentless Drive for Energy Security Ian Rutledge No preview available - 2006 |