A Global View of Horizontal Inequalities: Inequalities experienced by Muslims worldwide

Both within and across countries, most attention has been devoted to measuring inequality among individuals (and globally countries). Within countries, increasing evidence shows that inequalities among groups (HIs) are important for wellbeing. However, the global component of HIs are generally neglected. The paper argues that HIs at a global level may also be important for world stability and wellbeing, in much the same way HIs are relevant at the national level. With this perspective, the paper reviews Muslim/ non-Muslim HIs within developed and developing countries, and between Muslim and non-Muslim countries, finding that Muslims are systematically disadvantaged across many dimensions. It argues that, despite much heterogeneity among the Muslim population, there is evidence of multiple global connections and of shared perceptions, such that inequalities faced by Muslims in one part of the world may become a source of grievance and potential mobilisation in other parts of the world. Consequently, socio-economic and political inequalities need to be addressed globally, within countries and between them, and politically as well as with respect to socio-economic and cultural status. 1 I have benefited from research assistance from Manizah Immam; and I am very grateful to Graham Brown and to Mansoob Murshed for ideas, and for comments on a previous draft; and also to comments from a CRISE seminar. A version of this paper has also appeared as CRISE Working Paper 60. 2 Professor of Development Economics and Director, Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity, University of Oxford. Email: [email protected]. 3 Quoted in Abbas (2007):436.