If all the Muslim countries became united, will the Muslims become superpower of this world?
NO, they can’t.
Muslim countries[1] are those in which the majority ( i.e 50% or more ) of population practices the Islam religion. There are 53 countries in which Muslims comprise more than 50% of the population. A total of 1.2 billion Muslims live in these nations, representing 74% of the global Muslim population of 1.6 billion.[2]
Now, I think that even if these 53 countries are united and 74% of the world’s total Muslim population comes together, they won’t turn to a superpower because:
Technological and military Backwardness[3] :
- The Muslim countries are highly dependent on other countries for technology and they lack proper research and development facilities in their own countries.
- For example, nearly half of US arms exports over the past five years have gone to the war-stricken Middle East, Saudi Arabia has turned out to be the world’s second largest arms importing country.
- On the other hand a small country like Israel has developed exponentially by investing in technology, something that these Muslim countries have been taking for granted. They place religion above science and this will eventually leave them behind the world especially in the time when technology is evolving so rapidly.
Governance issues:
- When the world is readily investing on good governance and e-governance, these countries are still following monarchy.[4]
- The policies are not framed according to the needs of population for their growth, rather it is framed according to the needs of the king.
- There are strict rules and horrible punishments for those who do not abide by these rules.
- The overall structure of the governance is highly based on religion that mainly aims to protect the rigid religious structure of the country. Flexibility, transparency, accountability of the state to the people are mainly missing in these countries.
- One of the major issue of these countries is the rising trend of income inequality, giving excessive powers to the religious heads and the clergy.
- The interaction between the leader and the people are negligible. There are no proper grievance redressal mechanism.
Lack of unity and growth of terrorist organisations like ISIS.
- These countries are quite divided among themselves on religious basis like Shia, Sunni etc.
- The growth of many extremist elements and terrorist organisations like Al-Qa’ida (AQ), ISIS etc. have ruined economy of many countries and reduced them to graveyards. The countries who are striken by war is incapable of turning to a superpower ever. They are just wasting the world’s resources in the name of “holy war”.
- The youth are mainly brainwashed for proxy wars and proper education is not imparted to them. Their energy is mainly wasted in destructive ideologies rather than developing positive scientific ideologies or entrepreneurial skills.
Gender inequality:
- Middle East [5]and North Africa is the lowest-ranked region in the world in the Global Gender Gap Report. Bahrain was ranked 126th, Kuwait 129th, Saudi 138th and Qatar 130th.
- Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, Economic Opportunity and Political Empowerment of the women is declining rapidly in these countries that is substantiated by their low rankings.
- These countries have failed to realize the loss[6] they are occurring by neglecting the major chunk of their female population. No country can become a superpower by neglecting the female population and forcing them restrictive clothing and restrictive living conditions.
Today, many of these Muslim countries are flourishing due to their large reserves of oil that gives them major economic boost, but in the coming years, the world is shifting to the renewable sources of energy and they won’t be dependent on these countries for importing oil.
Moreover, oil is non renewable natural resources and it will be depleted soon. In the later years, technology, women empowerment is bound to play a decisive role in the world politics and these countries will be soon left behind.
Thank you.
🙂
Footnotes
[1] Islam by country – Wikipedia
[2] List of Muslim majority countries with sect/state/government
[3] Nearly half of US arms exports go to the Middle East
[4] Islamic monarchy – Wikipedia