By Anwar Elshamy
Doha-based Islamic scholar Dr Sheikh Yousuf al-Qaradawi yesterday called for a global social justice system, saying that any solution to the current financial crisis would be doomed without considering the role of ethics in managing the world economy.
Speaking at a roundtable session organised by the Doha International Centre for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID), Sheikh Qaradawi, who is the chairman of the Dublin-based International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS), said that that financial reforms should review the Western values on which the world economy is based.
“One problem of the Western economic system is that it is mainly profit-oriented. It is totally ignoring religion’s role in managing life. But, Islam ordains that economy should be ethics-based and makes the human rather than profit its priority,” he said.
“It will be futile if we only focused on reforming the system without reforming the human beings who are currently governed by their greed for profits. Morality should be part of the market and production laws. The worldly laws can not control every thing,” he added.
Sheikh Qaradawi described the current situation of the world economy as “unfair”, saying that US is in control of the world’s affairs.
“Some study showed that a child in the US is consuming energy as much as 100 children in Bangladesh. It is not unfair that 6% of the world’s population, which is the US population, consumes 40% of the world’s energy.”
The scholar called for reviewing the architecture of the current financial system, which he said, was dominated by the US.
“It is not fair that one country controls the destiny of the whole world. There is a need to create lobbying groups around the world to pressure for social global justice between countries,” he said.
“The US will not easily give up its status a dominating power. We have to create a global public opinion which pressure for correcting the imbalance,” he maintained.
Prof Ibrahim Oweis, professor of economics at Georgetown University in Qatar, said greed and fraud were among the causes that triggered the current global recession.
“There was a lack of regulations which led to the current situation. Without developing new rules and restrictions, the current financial system would totally collapse.”
He raised doubts over the possibility that the US bailout plans will be able to redress the current situation of the US economy.
“The crack in the US economy is too wide and too deep to be filled with the proposed rescue plans,” he added.
The roundtable discussion was attended by Dr Ibrahim al-Naimi, the chairman of the DICID; Dr Ali Moheyddin al-Qarardaghi, professor of Islamic jurisprudence at Qatar University; among other leading academics.
The discussion was held in association with the Earth Mates Dialogue Centre of London. |
