From: abde@troi.cc.rochester.edu (Tamer A. Abdelgawad)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.arabic,soc.culture.bosna-herzgvna
Subject: Re: ISLAMIC WORLD NEWS (10th)
Summary: A justification for an earlier post.
Keywords: Islamic World News, Economics
Date: 13 Nov 92 03:38:07 GMT
Organization: University of Rochester (Rochester, NY)

In article <1dsmvoINNgan@girtab.usc.edu> jodar@girtab.usc.edu (Nicholas Jodar) writes:
>Assalamu Alaikum....

(reproduction of my earlier comment deleted.)

>Ummm...  Have you read the article in question?  Perhaps because
>it is the third part of five (if my memory is correct) you may
>have missed the fact that the writer is commenting on the
>suitability of Islamic Economics to Muslim Philosophy....  So
>far, economic policy hasn't been discussed.

You're right.  To correct this, replace any reference to the article
with 'part III of the article', and my earlier post stands.  
 
>I'm going to wait until I've had a chance to read the whole
>article before passing judgement on it.  With the given heading,
>I think it would be more appropriate to reprint the findings of
>the European Community's financial wizards.  Despite their 
>experts' strong endorsement of Islamic Economics, and the EC's 
>interest in implementing such policy, when the Heads of State 
>found out it was connected to Islam they dropped it like a hot 
>potatoe.  It would be entertaining, if it weren't so tragic.
>
>And yes, I spell potatoe with an 'e'.... :-)
>
>-AQ

To the extent that 'Islamic Economics' encourages private enterprise,
efficiency, and improvements in welfare, everyone will endorse it.  To
the extent that it deviates from these goals, say by restricting the
efficient operation of financial markets, everyone -should- drop it 
"like a hot potato".

To those who don't want to bother to look up the article in question,
here's an excerpt that fully justifies my earlier post:

In article <1992Nov10.231908.1@max.u.washington.edu> imnet2@max.u.washington.edu writes:
>              @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
>              @ ISLAM & SCHOOLS OF ECONOMICS @
>              @ By M. Baqir al-Sadr          @
>              @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
>
>PART III
>
>               CONTRADICTIONS BETWEEN WESTERN
>                 SYSTEMS AND ISLAMIC BELIEFS
>
>
>     Besides the aversion of the Muslim Ummah to colonialism
>and every system connected with it, there is another major
>difficulty in applying the modern western economic systems
>to the Muslim world. There is a conflict between these
>systems and the Islamic religious beliefs which form a force
>for the Muslims.

Here the author proceeds to argue that Muslims cannot participate
in an economic system deemed by them as irreligious, and that 
western economic systems (he includes both capitalism and socialism)
succeeded in the west because they are suited to western culture.
In what follows, the author states these cultural differences. This
is the "badly argued exercise in establishing moral superiority" that
I referred to in my earlier post.

>     The western man by nature is a materialist. He looks to
>the earth and not to the heavens. Even his Christianity
>which he embraced hundreds of years ago has failed to change
>his outlook. The western man instead of focussing his eyes
>on the heavens pulled down the God of Christianity on earth
>and has incarnated him in a terrestial being. His attempt to
>establish the origin of man as an animal species, his inter-
>pretation of humanity on the basis of changes on earth and
>atmosphere, and his, scientific investigations to interepret
>human behaviour on the basis of production inputs, stem
>from the same moral outlook which pulled down God on the
>earth.
>     His concentration of attention on earth has induced
>the western man to evaluate the matter, the wealth and the
>property in a way conforming to his own outlook, which has
>influenced the western man throughout the history and has
>given rise to the Schools of Existentialism and Pragmatism
>which from the infra-structure of the moral philosophy of
>west and the mentality of a western man.
>
>   The peculiar outlook of a western man vis-a-vis matter,
>wealth and property has played a big role in stirring up his
>potential to organize developmental activity in a particular
>manner. It has created an insatiable urge to exploit the
>matter and to use it to his own advantage.
>
>   With the weakening of his relation with God, the western
>man discarded the doctrine of divine sovereignty and
>rejected all limitations imposed from without. He became
>mentally disposed to freedom and selfishness. This mental
>state gradually became so overpowering that it assumed the
>form of a philosophy known in the history of modern western
>countries  as  Existentialism,  a  beautiful  philosophical
>expression which caught the imagination of the west.
>
>     The sentiments of freedom and individualism which are
>the characteristics of the western man have contributed much
>to the success of free economy in the west. Even when
>Socialist Economy was introduced, once again an attempt
>was made to utilize the same sentiments with a minor
>difference so much so that personal individualism was
>replaced by class individualism.
>
>   We all knew that this freedom consciousness in the west
>was responsible for disappearance of moral responsibility.
>Had this responsibility existed the efforts and activities
>of the western people would have take a different turn.
>
>   The consciousness of freedom turned the attention of the
>western man to the concept of competition since everybody
>was supposed to enjoy an unrestricted freedom. But in the
>case of clash of interests an individual's freedom was
>restricted by the freedom of others. Thus one could enjoy
>freedom only at the cost of the other.
>
>   The concept of competition like any other concept
>manifested itself in political, economic, social, cultural
>and philosophical fields and resulted in the emergence of
>the natural law of struggle for existence among the living
>beings and took shape as the Social Law of Class Struggle
>and the Philosophical Theory of Dialectical Interpretation
>of the world on the basis of the process of Thesis,
>Antithesis and Synthesis. All these attempts, though they
>have scientific and philosophical labels point out to only
>one general truth, namely,  the  modern  man's  extreme
>consciousness of competition.
>
>   Competition has played an important role in guiding the
>economy and the ceaseless developmental activities in
>western countries both at individual as well as class level.
>At individual level it resulted in the unlimited and painful
>rivalry between the commercial firms and the industrial
>organizations developed on the basis of Free Economy. At
>the class level it has in the revolutionary socities given
>impetus to the acquisition of all production activities of
>the country and mobilizing all resources for the purpose of
>economic growth.
>     This is the moral conduct of the west as far as economy
>is concerned, and it was under these conditions that the
>western economy grew and devleoped.

The rest of the article, deleted here for brevity, goes on to 
state what the 'Muslim outlook' on these matters is.

Tamer Abdelgawad
Newsgroups: soc.culture.arabic