The case for Islamocapitalism

Turkish writer Mustafa Akyol has an interesting essay about Islam and capitalism at TCS. Akyol observed that whether Islam is compatible with modernity is a hot question. He noted that the discussion of this question has tended to focus on political matters -- pluralism, democracy, etc. -- but that Islam's relationship to what he called economic liberalism -- the free market -- also needed to be discussed.

Akyol argued that Islam is -- or should be -- friendly to capitalism, and he cited a number of reasons, including the example of Muhammad himself:

Indeed, when Prophet Muhammad was asked to fix the prices in the market because some merchants were selling goods too dearly, he refused and said, "only Allah governs the market." It wouldn't be far-fetched to see a parallel here with Adam Smith's "invisible hand." The Prophet also has many sayings cherishing trade, profit-making, and beauties of life. "Muhammad," as Maxime Rodinson put it simply, "was not a socialist."

Lots of interesting historical, religious, and philosophical information. I was especially interested in what he said about the roots of radical Islam (hint: they're in Europe), the problem of usury and "Islamic banking," and the recent rise of "Islamic Calvinism" in Turkey. Read the whole thing.

My take? Religious belief is based on faith, not logic or empirical data. So it doesn't matter whether Muhammad was in fact more of a capitalist or more of a socialist, and it doesn't matter whether the Koran actually forbids all interest or only "excessive" interest. What matters is what most Muslims believe.

If such Muslims as Akyol, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, and Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad of the Minaret of Freedom Institute succeed in persuading enough of their co-religionists that Islam and capitalism are allies, then they will be allies. "Islamocapitalism" has kind of a nice ring to it.
 

tags: capitalism  islam  economics