The Muslim World

Abstract

This book owes its origin to a major international conference held in April by the Association of Muslim Social Scientists at Iowa State University in April 1983. The papers cover "a wide range of topics to match the wide range of crises in which the Muslim world finds itself." It includes forty-six illustrative maps and figures and twenty-six tables. which make the texts more meaningful. In recent times, the issues of Third World development and technology transfer have stirred much controversy, resulting in a polarization of views. On one hand is the Third/Muslim World view that the so-called transfer of technology, whether from the capitalist or communist countries, is counterproductive and exploitive, generating a client/dependency relationship. On the other hand, the donors feel that their "technological giveaways" promote "interdependence, collective self-reliance, and mutual interest." Between these two extremes lies Muslim resurgence and Islamic revivalism, with Islam as a sociopolitical force providing its own ideological and institutional solutions to the issues of development and technology transfer. The emphasis is on conscientious "value-patterned" socioeconomic development. Iowa State University's 1983 Conference and the present book focus on this motivating theme. They advocate alternate development strategies which are basically Islamic in spirit, substance, and system. In section 1 of the book, trends and issues typical of the Muslim world are evaluated, specifically with reference to Pakistan. The first paper is a comparatively short study of coloniaJism (capitalist and communist) vis-avis the Muslim world. The remedial recipe is an Islamic Development Policy/Strategy. The second paper discusses the development dilemma of the Islamic countries, in the light of Islanuc values. The third author emphasizes that Islamic development is holistic, aiming at the moral man in a moral society. Taken together, these first three papers form a contextual framework for specific area case studies analyzing the influence of alien aid and alienating development strategies ...