What are the forces that will ultimately change the Muslim world? According to Iranian-American scholar Vali Nasr, it’s entrepreneurs. On December 17, Nasr, who is currently serving as Senior Advisor to Richard Holbrooke on Afpak strategy, spoke at The New America Foundation about his new book, Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What It Will Mean for Our World. In the book, Nasr argues that integration into the global economy is the historic force that turns developing countries into modern ones. This was true of Western Europe back in the 18th century, where Scottish merchants turned Scotland into the seat of the Industrial Revolution, and more recently of Latin America, East Asia, and Eastern Europe.
Nasr purports that the key cause for the Muslim world’s stagnation is that the Muslim world remains outside of the global supply chain. The consequence is that large parts of the Muslim world are lacking an independent middle class. Nasr defines a middle class as a group who is rooted in market activities, whose economic, political, and social position is connected to the role it plays in the global economy. While you find plenty of people in the Middle East who fit the standard definition of a middle class – they have steady jobs and can spend 1/3 of their income on things besides food and shelter – these people are not producing wealth. Rather, they are living off of wealth handed down by the government. And herein lies the problem. Because many Middle Eastern countries are “rentier states” (generate income from oil wealth, foreign assistance, and nationalization of foreign industries), citizens are dependent on the government for jobs and social welfare, which enables authoritarian states to effectively buy the citizens’ acquiescence. But now as this social contract breaks down, unemployed youth are proving to be a combustible force.
The exceptions, Nasr believes, are Turkey and Dubai, where entrepreneurs have transformed the economies of these countries and as a result made them prosperous, peaceful places to live. What’s most interesting in both countries is that these businessmen have whole-heartedly embraced capitalism, but remain religiously conservative; proving that Islam is not the problem. They are not interested in religion as social action, they are interested in personal piety and values. And they realize that, “jihad is not good for business.” In this way, entrepreneurs are changing the political conversation in the Muslim world and serving as a counterweight to extremist interpretations of Islam in their societies.
Published Date: January 06, 2010