by Allen, Calvin H Jr
Timur Kuran is professor of economics and law and the King Faisal Professor of Islamic Thought and Culture at the University of Southern California. Islam and Mammon is not so much a systematic discussion of Islamic economics as a collection of six previously published articles that originally appeared between 1989 and 1997, with "editing... limited to stylistic standardization and minor cuts to avoid repetition" (p. xvii). Despite that limitation the chapters are held together by a basic theme that presents Islamic economics as a recent development, dating only to the 1940s, that has focused on the abolition of interest in an Islamic banking system, the redistribution of wealth through zakat (the religiously mandated charity) and inheritance laws, and the implementation of an Islamic ethical system. Kuran argues that this all fails as an economic system but is very important in creating a "sub-economy" based on Islamic identity. He sees this as a very dangerous trend, and one that is to be counteracted. To his credit, Kuran is very straightforward about his own bias in this discussion when he asserts that, "The organizing principles of an economy should be individual liberty and limited government." (p. 56).
The first chapter (article) "The Economic Impact oflslamism" (first published in 1993) attributes the origins of Islamic economics to the Indian/Pakistani Islamist Abu al-'Ala Mawdudi who presented it as a middle ground between the injustice of interest based capitalism and the inefficiencies of the marketless socialist system. Kuran then goes on to criticize the basic features of the Islamic economy, specifically interest free banking, which he argues utilizes legal devices (mudaraba, musharaka, ijara), often in corrupted forms, to charge interest under other names; the zakat system of wealth redistribution, which has had a negligible impact wherever it has been applied; and the application of Islamic morality. The second chapter "Islamic Economics and the Islamic Sub-economy" (1995) rehashes the interest-free banking, zakat, and values system discussions of the first chapter but directs much more attention to what Kuran sees as the major impact of Islamic economics, the creation and promotion of an Islamic identity, what he calls the Islamic sub-economy where Islamic business just means doing business with like-minded, i.e. Islamic, businesses. While criticizing the economic principles of this, Kuran does admit that this sub-economy has benefit in creating interpersonal trust in difficult socio-economic times. Chapter three "Islamism and Economics: Policy Prescriptions for a Free Society" (1997) revisits the Islamic sub-economy, arguing that the alleviation of socio-economic turmoil does not outweigh the potential harm caused by a failed economic system that imposes rigid social values that not only limit freedom but causes the have-not Islamic community to lash out against others. Kuran asserts that "Liberals" must both expose these failures and devise solutions to economic problems that cause Muslims to seek non-lslamist solution. In "Genesis of Islamic Economics" (1997) Kuran focuses on the historic development of Islamic economics, presenting Abu al-'Ala Mawdudi as a founder who was less concerned with economics than with an Islamic cultural renaissance and the protection of Islamic communal interests. Kuran goes on to ask why, if there is truly such a thing as Islamic economics, there is no evidence of such economic practices in past centuries when Islamic societies were greatly in need of economics reform and development. Chapter five "The Notion of Economic Justice in Contemporary Islamic Thought" (1989) provides an analysis of writings on Islamic economics and social justice, specifically the principles of equality and fairness embedded in the ban on interest, zakat, and inheritance. But to Kuran these writings fail in that the solutions offered are not suitable to modem economic conditions; they are based on outmoded economic practices, and there are too many disagreements over principles and applications. Finally, in "Islam and Underdevelopment" (1997) Kuran seeks an understanding of why Islamic societies are economically underdeveloped, rejecting the theses that this was caused by either European imperialism or a corruption of Islamic economic principles but focusing on social factors, most importantly communalism (i.e. greater concern with the rights and needs of the community than those of the individual) and the absence of public debate, what he calls preference falsification whereby individuals do not express their true opinions so as to avoid punishment of unpopular opinions.
It is not the least bit surprising that Kuran so opposes Islamic economics; he expresses his own classical liberal principles at the outset, and one would expect him to see one of the basic tenants of Islam, its communalism, as its principal cause of failure. Kuran also goes too far in rejecting the very notion of an Islamic economy because it has not lived up to its own principles. However, Kuran's major contribution, and the reason why this book should be read not just by economists but also historians and other social scientists interested in the Muslim world, is to identify and analyze the failure of the Islamic economic system, as represented by the Islamic banking system, zakat, and Islamic morality, to apply its own principles and to be satisfied with the sub-economy that Kuran so accurately describes.
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