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Malaysia's Deputy Premier Urges Muslims To Compete In Global Economy
by Kazi Mahmood
Kuala Lumpur, Feb 26 (IslamOnline) - Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said on Sunday that it would be a great disservice to Islam if Muslims of the world were unable to compete and succeed in the new global economy.
He said the Muslim "jihad" does not mean military struggle only, but covered the search for knowledge, prosperity and the promotion of development, as well as the eradication of poverty.
In this respect, the Deputy Prime Minister said Muslims would be doing a form of "jihad" if they strive to compete in the global economy.
Malaysia had always believed that the best "jihad" for Muslims was social and economic progression. Muslims must then struggle to seek a meaningful participation in the drive towards global economy.
A specialist in Islamic affairs in Kuala Lumpur, Muhd Isa, told IslamOnline that Malaysia's interpretation of "jihad" was not contrary to the Islamic principle of development.
He added that even the opposition Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS) was pushing for its own "jihad" agenda of "development with Islam" and has achieved reasonable success on those lines in the states it controls in Malaysia, namely Kelantan and Terrenganu.
Islam can only flourish if the Ummah can show that it can promote peace and prosperity at home and partake actively and successfully on the global stage, Badawi said during a speech delivered in Cairo at the opening of the third summit of heads of state and government of the Group of Eight Developing Muslim countries (D-8).
Badawi also said Malaysia believed that in a "globalized" world, there was a need to democratize governance of international and multilateral bodies, and not just governments.
"There is no doubt that globalization, if properly harnessed and practiced, can result in a more equitable world order where wealth is distributed more evenly between the rich and the poor," he said.
Referring to the reforming of the international financial architecture, the deputy prime minister said it should provide a permanent mechanism comprising developed, developing and emerging economies on global financial and monetary matters.
Abdullah said developing countries were still lagging in terms of infrastructure and human resource development in the field of information and communication technology.
"Malaysia hopes that we can bridge this digital divide together with other developing countries through federal assistance, technology transfer and sharing each other's strategies in developing our respective new economic sectors."
Muhd Isa said the two main fronts where Muslims should acquire greater knowledge, in order to make headway in the global world, were technology and monetary matters.
He acknowledged that Islam, while not limiting the usage of technological advancements, offered strict rules and principles regarding financial and monetary transactions.
He added, however, that monetary obstacles could be overturned if Muslim nations could build their own monetary authority that would be responsible to regulate "halal and haram" aspects of such transactions.
In short, he said that there should be a central organization to handle "Islamic" funds worldwide.
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