The Discontents of Islamic Economic Morality

Abstract

Islamic economics, which is dedicated to restructuring economic thought and practice on the basis of fundamental Islamic teachings, has been criticized extensively for its incoherence, incompleteness, impracticality, and irrelevance (see e.g., Sohrab Behdad, 1989; Kuran, 1993).Yet evaluations to date have barely addressed the reasons for the doctrine's emergence and continuing appeal.If the critics of Islamic economics are right, and its capacity for improving economic performance is at best marginal, what explains its existence and popularity?It is easy to understand why middleclass Pakistanis or Egyptians might consider their local economy, or even the global economy, in need of reform.But why would anyone believe that Islamic economics is capable of raising productivity, stimulating growth, or reducing inequality?These questions mask an essential, if paradoxical, fact: the main purpose of Islamic economics is not to improve economic performance.Notwithstanding the claim that Islamic economics provides a superior alternative to the secular economic doctrines of our time, its real purpose is to help prevent Muslims from assimilating into the emerging global culture whose core elements have a Western pedigree.Moreover, in pursuing cultural protectionism Islamic economics depends minimally on controlling the way Muslims behave in the marketplace.Its chief instrument for fighting assimilation is the guilt that it fosters by characterizing certain universal economic practices as un-Islamic.Guilt-ridden Muslims, seeking atonement for economic choices they perceive as possibly sinful, contribute to religious causes, support religious movements, and undertake acts of religious piety.In the process, they inflate the observed religiosity of the Muslim world.And they magnify the apparent constituency for extending Islam's temporal domain and authority.

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