Islamicity
“I went to the West and saw Islam, but no Muslims; I got back to the East and saw Muslims, but no Islam.” (Mohammad Abduh)
Introduction
Islamicity Indices have been developed as the instrument to build effective institutions in Muslim countries. These indices reflect fundamental Islamic teachings and offer the instrument and the moral compass for developing effective institutions and stimulating peaceful reform. Islamicity Indices provide a simple approach for Muslims to focus on the indisputable source of their religion—the Qur’an—and a continuous performance indicator of their rulers, governments and communities. Muslims can take ownership of their society, assess its successes and failures, embrace and support change and encourage their governments to develop and adopt more effective institutions and better policies. Islamicity Indices also serve as an approach to explain Islam to the non-Muslim world and with a better understanding of Islam in both Muslim and non-Muslim communities peaceful reform and effective institutions will be more readily achieved.
The current state of Muslim countries is the product of centuries of missteps. These missteps are multidimensional—political repression, exclusionary social and economic systems, divisive policies, corruption and a social fabric that has become embedded with injustice, selfishness and despair. It will take much time to achieve a turnaround that will help in closing the growing chasm between the Muslim and non-Muslim world to enhance the unity of humankind. The indices show that Western countries, especially those of Northern Europe, Canada and New Zealand, reflect Islamic values much more than do Islamic countries.
We have incorporated the “Islamicity Foundation,” a non-profit 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt corporation in the United States to take ownership of the Islamicity Indices project with the mission of bringing about peaceful and positive change in Muslim countries. To this end, the Foundation will develop an organizational structure that is supported by a vast global community of Muslims who better understand the teachings of the Qur’an and support peaceful reforms and more effective institutions. Such an informed global community of Muslims, with the moral support of millions of Muslims and non-Muslims around the world, would be in a position to peacefully encourage rulers to build effective institutions and to initiate much-needed reforms to enhance human and economic development across Muslim countries. The Foundation plans to raise a significant endowment to generate an income stream to support its mission without external interference. In time, we hope to transfer the foundation to a world-class university where it can collaborate with universities across the world.
For further details on Islamicity Indices Project, the latest indices, numerous downloads and updates please visit our dedicated website:
www.IslamicityIndices.Org