Is Islam an Obstacle to Development? Evidence to the Contrary and Some Methodological Considerations

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between value systems and economic development. Beginning with Weber, many social scientists, especially in the West, have expressed the belief that Islam is an obstacle to development. This is, in turn, used to explain widespread underdevelopment in almost all the Muslim countries. The intellectual root of their argument is Weber's assertion that the Protestant ethic was responsible for the development of capitalism in western countries. This study tries to show that works of Weber, Sutcliffe, and Parkinson are flawed on methodological and substantive grounds. Work done by Muslim social scientists in response to such claims has even more serious flaws than that of their western counterparts. In the present investigation, using data from a study carried out in Kelantan by Prof. Zeyauddin of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology IIUM in 1992, the author attempts to show that development may assume a different meaning in a traditional Muslim community, and despite the less developed status of an area, the people may be as ambitious and motivated as any people in the world.