News of the global ranking of nations subject to Professor Hossein Askari and Dr Scheherazde S Rehman’s ‘Islamicity Index’, which strangely found Ireland to be the country most in compliance with the Islamic principles laid out in the Qur’an, caused a stir on Malaysian social media, and a local Islamic scholar has a few things of his own to say about the study in response.
When contacted by Astro Awani, Dr Ahmad Hidayat Buang, of Universiti Malaya’s Academy of Islamic Studies, said the Islamicity Index is selective, as its scope of observation only covered the areas of a society’s economic achivements, governance, human and political rights, and international relations.
“It does not take into account personal religious practise. For example, it does not consider if someone performs the prayers five times a day, going to the mosque, the importance of halal and haram. The index does not consider all these,” explained Prof Ahmad Hidayat.
Apart from Ireland, other countries that were found by the study to most closely adhere to the Islamic principles in the Qur’an were Denmark, Sweden, and the UK. Countries lower on the list – but still higher than any Muslim-majority country – include the United States, Singapore and Israel. Not a single Muslim-majority country made it into the top 25.
Malaysia came closest, coming at #33; Kuwait is the second-highest ranked Muslim-majority society on the list, at #42.
Prof Ahmad Hidayat did concede that there was some truth in the Islamicity Index used for the study.
“For example, we take hygiene, specifically the toilets. Which one is cleaner? The toilets in Islamic countries or non-Islamic countries? In general, the toilets in the non-Islamic countries are cleaner.
“There are elements practised by developed countries and there are elements not practised by Muslim-majority countries. There are some truth in the index, but it is not comprehensive,” he explained.
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Study finds Ireland, Israel and Singapore more “Islamic” than Muslim-dominant countries
