The Egalitarian Face of Islamic Orthodoxy: Support for Islamic Law and Economic Justice in Seven Muslim-Majority Nations

circumstances and development of Muslim nations has been the subject of intense debate among Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Western critics of Islam or “Islamic civilization,” such as Bernard Lewis (1990) and Samuel Huntington (1993), have decried its economic irrationality, incompatibility with democracy, and failure to separate religion and state; while scholars such as Edward Said (2001:11) have denounced such thinking as Orientalist essentialism that ignores “the internal dynamics and plurality” of Muslim nations. The debate is not just academic. Today, there are over 1.3 billion Muslims in the world and more than 50 predominantly Muslim nations. Some of the governments of these nations are meeting their citizens’ economic needs, while many others are unable or unwilling to address them. The United Nations (2001) ranks countries on a Human Development Index (HDI), based on their life expectancy, literacy rate, school enrollments, and per capita gross domestic product (GDP). Five Muslim-majority nations are rated The Egalitarian Face of Islamic Orthodoxy: Support for Islamic Law and Economic Justice in Seven Muslim-Majority Nations