MohammedAmin.comSerious writing for
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Because it advances the understanding of religious, political, and economic freedom for peace and prosperity in Muslim majority countries.
Summary
Presented 5 November 2021. Posted 25 November 2021. Updated 28 October 2023
On 28 October 2023 I resigned from the Islam & Liberty Network Council, because it was unwilling to take the actions I considered necessary after social media activity by ILN's Assistant Director Tasnim Idriss which I considered to express support for Hamas.
The most important item was her tweet of 7 October after the Hamas attack on Israel. See the screenshot.
The Islam & Liberty Network held its 8th International Conference online using Zoom on 5 & 6 November 2021.
As Chairman of the Council, I was the first speaker, responsible for welcoming the participants. I also took the opportunity to make a short 13-minute personal presentation to explain why I regard the Network as vital.
You can watch it below.
I am happy to share the PowerPoint slides.
I was asked a question by one of the participant. For privacy reasons, I have not published the recording of the question, but have transcribed it, as two slides in the video, followed by the video recording of my answer.
For convenience, the text of the question is also reproduced below.
“According to Professor Mohammed Amin, the backwardness of Muslim majority countries is due to their lack of religious, economic, and political freedom.
I think my country, Tunisia, is a counter-example.
Until 25 July 2021 we have had a very progressive, liberal, and democratic constitution with economic and political freedom.
This [freedom] has been unable to deliver and we are still lagging behind.
I accept that 10 years [since freedom arrived] is a short time, but there are other reasons which are not addressed even if you have the best of constitutions.”
It is of course impossible to read the country names on Slide 6 below.
Accordingly you can download a PDF file with the data.
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I have not yet written a review of “What Went Wrong? — Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response” by Bernard Lewis, but intend to do so.
When presenting slide 11, I mention that I assembled the data a few years ago. Accordingly I have update it in the table below. The 2021 data is the same as in the PDF file above.
Pakistan |
South Korea |
Ratio |
|
1950 GDP per person (Source Nationmaster) |
$ 650 |
$ 876 |
1.3 |
2013 GDP per capita, PPP, source IMF |
$ 4,574 |
$ 33,791 |
7.4 |
2021 GDP per capita, PPP, source IMF |
$ 5,224 |
$ 47,027 |
9.0 |
My website has the article mentioned: "Why are Muslim majority countries lagging behind?"
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