Israel adheres to "Islamic values" more than any Muslim or Arab country

From The Irish Times:

The country in the world most faithful to the values of the Koran is Ireland according to an Iranian-born academic at George Washingon University in the US. Next are Denmark, Sweden and the UK.

In a BBC interview, Hossein Askari, Professor of International Business and International Affairs at George Washington University said a study by himself and colleague Dr Scheherazde S Rehman, also rates Israel (27) as being more compliant with the ideals of the Koran than any predominantly Muslim country.

Not a single majority Muslim country made the top 25 and no Arab country is in the top 50.

He said that when their ‘Islamicity index’ was applied only Malaysia (33) and Kuwait (42) featured in its top 50 countries, compared to the US at 15, the Netherlands also at 15, while France is at 17.

Saudi Arabia rated 91st, with Qatar at 111st.

In carrying out the study, they applied the ideals of Islam in the areas of a society’s economic achievements, governance, human and political rights, and international relations, he said.

On that index “Muslim countries do very badly,” he said and accused them of using religion as an instrument of power.

Last November Prof Askari said that “we must emphasize that many countries that profess Islam and are called Islamic are unjust, corrupt, and underdeveloped and are in fact not ‘Islamic’ by any stretch of the imagination.”

“Looking at an index of Economic Islamicity, or how closely the policies and achievements of countries reflect Islamic economic teachings - Ireland, Denmark, Luxembourg, Sweden, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Singapore, Finland, Norway, and Belgium round up the first 10”.

In their ‘Overall Islamicity Index’, a measure that encompasses laws and governance, human and political rights, international relations, and economic factors, “the rankings are much the same: New Zealand, Luxembourg, Ireland, Iceland, Finland, Denmark, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Netherlands; and again only Malaysia (38) and Kuwait (48) make it into the top 50 from Muslim countries,” he said.

I don't think this study has been published yet, but I found the previous 2010 Islamicity Economic Index study by the same team, which also ranked Israel at 27, ahead of every Muslim and Arab country.

I am not qualified enough to know whether the values they claim are Islamic are, in fact, the complete set of values mentioned in the Koran. A study like this might sound scientific but ultimately it rests on its assumptions. They list 12 "Islamic economic principles" like "Economic Opportunity And Economic Freedom," "Justice in all aspects of economic management i.e. property rights and the sanctity of contracts," "Higher education expenditures relative to GDP including equal access to education," "A more even distribution of wealth and income" and "Better social infrastructure and provision of social services through taxation and social welfare." It is easy to see how the personal feelings of the researchers, who are both apparently Western Muslims, might influence their criteria for what are considered "Islamic values" as well as which Islamic values they choose to exclude. If these basic assumptions are incorrect, then no matter how rigorous the rest of the study is, it is worthless.

To take one example, slavery is permitted in the Koran. Masters are allowed to have sex with not only their slaves but also with female captives of war - with or without their consent. In other words, raping female slaves and captives is quite permitted as a Muslim ethical standard. Again, I am not an expert so I don't know the limitations of these laws under Sharia, if any, - Wikipedia doesn't list any significant limitations - but I highly doubt that any Western Muslim academic would count slavery and even limited rape of slaves as an "Islamic principle" that should be listed in a study like this. If the study only picks and chooses which Islamic principles are relevant, then it doesn't accurately represent Islamic principles.

I doubt too many non-Muslim economists or international relations scholars are qualified to challenge their basic assumptions of what values are considered "Islamic" so no real critiques are possible. In a sense, papers like these could be used as a whitewash of Islam as a political philosophy, and that is a danger that needs to be called out.

(I am very sensitive to nuances of religion, and I have seen Judaism attacked  as a religion that allows battlefield rape by haters with an antisemitic agenda. I'm basing my assumption that Islam allows raping captives and slaves - both are identical in Islam -  on Wikipedia articles that appear to be fairly well-sourced. Source-based corrections more than welcome. Also, if someone would write an academic paper ranking nations against Jewish principles, I would have the same issues as to methodology. I doubt that anyone would, though.)

Not surprisingly, when this story was reported by OnIslam.net, Israel's rankings are ignored.

(h/t billposer)