Description
Book SynopsisDuring the 1970s and early 1980s, the Middle East and North Africa were perceived as being exceptionally successful, but now the region is viewed as a resounding economic and social failure. Islam is not only a religion, but also a political and social project. A major pretext of this work is to demonstrate how the tensions within Islamic movements feed directly into the economic, social, political, historical and religious arena of the region, and vice versa. An introductory chapter sets the context of the book. The core chapters of the book comprise an in-depth examination of the varied forms of oil revenue abuse. For examples, the past mismanagement of the tremendous wealth provided by oil. Following Islamic beliefs, revenue from oil should not finance wasteful consumption, but used instead for public welfare. Abstaining from interest calculations, there should be a case for keeping more oil in the ground. Indeed, oil has also stifled industrial development, and with declining oil r
Table of ContentsThe Social Promise of Islam.
Merchants and Soldiers in Islamic Society.
Oil and Islamic Economic Principles.
Oil and Muslim Societies.
Rentier States Under Pressure.
Islamism as a Social Protest and a National Assertion.
Islamism and Oil Policy.
References.
Index.
