1. A Note on Islamic Economics K K π É°UÉ≤æà°SG ?GòG øE : ΩÉ°ûG ∫É≤A, ì« ≪ E K ≧ °TH áæ°ùM IõH „ ƒGH, ÉEGÎM : É¡«A AÉL, Ió«°ü≤H ¬ØJô©J „ πëØDG ôYÉ°ûDG ™AóFÉA, G Ωô`◊GH π◊GH ¬Aô`©` J â«``ÑDGH ¬JCÉWH AÉë£ÑD º` ≪ ` ©DG ôGÉ`£DG »≤æDG »≤`` àDG GòG º¡` ≪ C ˆG Ωô`` µDG »¡àæJ GòG ΩQÉ ≧ ``E ¤EG É¡` ≪ FÉ`B ∫É`B : ∫ÉB ¿CG ¤EG "ºé©DGH äôµFCG øE ±ô©J Üô©DG √ô`FÉ`°ýH GòG ø` 2 See Dr. M.U. Chapra, The Future of Economics, The Islamic Foundation, 2000 (p. 254). This is a valuable book, a valiant effort in framing the past, present, and future of the discipline. Nevertheless, the appeal here for the development of a common language of discourse for Islamic economics that can commend consensus among practitioners remains valid. Meeting the challenging task of removing, or at least reducing, the present fuzziness is still an imperative for acceleration of development and growth of the discipline. 3 See, for example, the discussions in the recent Roundtable organized by the Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI) of the Islamic Development Bank on May 26-27, 2004, in cooperation with the Kuwait-based Arab Planning Institute (API). Gratitudes are due to Dr. Fahim Khan who provided copies of some of the papers presented in the Round Table, including an early draft of his own editorial overview of the discussion. Coverage of the first current has been limited in this paper since it has been covered extensively by Dr. Fahim Khan‘s overview of the Roundtable discussion. 4 Professor Ali Khan in his ―Globalization ‖ paper, Islamic Economic Studies, Vol. 8, No. 1, (p. 52) suggests that ―there seems to be a tremendous anxiety about Islamic economics and how it may have an adverse effect on globalization. ‖ Professor Timur Kuran, in all his writings on Islamic economics, displays such anxiety. An example is ―Islam and Under-Development: An Old Puzzle Revisited, ‖ Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, Vol. 153, 1997, (pp. 41-71). Despite pretensions of ‗dispassionate analysis‘, the content of this paper and the position taken in other of his published works on the subject belie the claim. Superficial understanding of Islam, lack of familiarity with the canonical texts, Islamic history and history of thought and strong priors lead to ‗a very distorted image of Islam‘, as Professors Ebrahim and Safadi indicate in their paper ―Behavioral Norms in the Islamic Doctrine of Economics: A Comment, ‖ Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Vol. 27, 1995. Distortion by selectivity is rather transparent in Professor Kuran‘s paper ―The Discontents of Islamic Morality ‖ in American Economic Review, Vol. 86, No. 2, May 1996 (pp. 438-442), in which Islamic economics is passionately criticized and a profoundly absurd claim is made that ―... the main purpose of Islamic economics is not to improve economic performance..., its real purpose is to help prevent Muslims from assimilating into the emerging global culture whose core elements have a Western pedigree.... Its chief instrument for fighting assimilation is the guilt that it fosters by 26