Muslim Officials: Capitalism Has Collapsed

November 24, 2008

“Islamic philosophy is holding up,” he told the conference, which was attended by about 300 delegates, including Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal and Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to the Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

According to a report by the Middle East Times, al-Qaradawi said, “All riches are ours…The Islamic nation has all or nearly all the oil, and we have an economic philosophy no one else has.” He encouraged the conference to take advantage of the current financial crisis. He said Muslims should “profit from the crisis to bring about the triumph of the [Islamic] nation, which holds the spiritual and material resources for victory.”

That same week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was speaking much the same script: “The oppressors and the corrupt will be replaced by the pious and believers,” adding that “an Islamic banking system will help us survive the current economic crisis.” Khamenei was aglow, describing the crisis as a “victory of the Islamic revolution.” He continued, “Now there is no sign of Marxism in the world, and even liberalism is declining.”

Israel bank chief Stanley Fischer did not share the end of capitalism euphoria. “I believe there will be major changes in the American financial system, in risk management and in supervision over financial institutions. But I don’t think it will be a revolution, and this isn’t the end of capitalism. Churchill said that democracy is the worst system, except for all the other ones. The same is true for capitalism.”

One of the more significant comments about the crisis was penned by Simon Jenkins in The Guardian: “It was politicians whose laxity and craving for popularity lay at the root of the present trouble.” Isn’t that the real dilemma? Election campaigns aim for candidates to gain popularity, so candidates often use headline-grabbing, one-liner slogans rather than speak the painful truth. But if we avoid truth long enough, the ultimate correction is a calamity…in this case, an economic crisis.

By Ron Ross,
BFP Israel Mosaic Radio Host

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