CONCLUDING REMARKS We have outlined what we believe to be the essential teachings of Islam on what constitutes an Islamic society and an Islamic economic system. A casual observer would conclude that the adoption and implementation of such a system—respect for human rights, social and economic justice, hard work, equal opportunity for all to develop, absence of corruption, absence of waste and hoarding, ethical business practices, well-functioning markets, a legitimate political authority— should result in flourishing economies. These teachings, not the actual practice of those that are labeled as Muslim, should be the basis for judging a society’s pretensions to Islamicity.
Our very preliminary results show that Islamic countries are not as Islamic in their practice as one might expect; instead it appears that the most developed countries tend to place higher on our preliminary Islamicity Index.
Given our results, one can surmise that the lack of economic, financial, political, legal, and social development can be attributed to age-old problems of developing countries, such as inefficient institutions, bad economic policies, corruption, underdeveloped rule of law and equity, economic and social systems failing woman and children, and other traditional developing country diseases. It is, in fact, the shortcomings of the governments and their respective policies, not religion, that account for the dismal economic, financial, political, legal, and social developments and progress in the Middle East (even those blessed with oil). This is further reinforced by the Islamic economic, financial, political, legal, and social principles represented by 67 proxies used in the IslamicityIndex. If examined closely, all 67 proxies of the Index are standard practices of good governance and good economic, financial, political, legal, and social policies, applicable to any country regardless of religious orientation.
We do, however, strongly emphasize that these are preliminary results that not only require additional data for variables that represent Islamic principles but also require extensive refinement in methodology. It is difficult at this time to draw more concrete conclusions other than to say that it is our belief that most self-declared and labeled Islamic countries are not conducting their affairs in accordance with Islamic teachings – at least when it comes to economic, financial, political, legal, social and governance policies."
