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A visit to shopping centres and supermarkets in Muslim countries today would reveal a plethora of goods ranging from Islamic Coke to even Muslim Jeans that are clearly made with Muslim tastes and preferences in mind
Today countries like Malaysia and Indonesia are breaking new ground in areas such as Islamic banking and finance. Furthermore the popularity of goods and services including consumer goods that carry a distinct ‘Made for Muslims’ brand is striking. A visit to shopping centres and supermarkets in Muslim countries today would reveal a plethora of goods ranging from Islamic Coke to even Muslim Jeans that are clearly made with Muslim tastes and preferences in mind. Malaysia is now in the process of developing what may be the first-ever Muslim car, that is designed with the needs of Muslims in mind. In areas such as popular entertainment and plastic arts, Muslim popular culture has become a major business, with even giant conglomerates like EMI signing up Muslim pop groups (such as the ‘Nashid’ or ‘Nasheed’ bands that are popular in Malaysia and Indonesia) as part of their stable of entertainers.
It has, however, to be remembered that what we are witnessing in the Muslim world today is hardly revolutionary or radical. To that end, it is important to stress a number of salient points.
Firstly, it has to be stated again and again that Islam is not a religion and belief-system that is anti-commerce. Indeed, a look back at the early history of Islam more than a millennium ago, would indicate that the early Muslim society was primarily a sedentary one that was geared towards urban life, industry and commerce. The ethical tenets of Islam do not deter one from engaging in commerce, for the Prophet (Pbuh) himself hailed from a family that was involved in commercial and trading enterprises.
Islam defends, and indeed promotes, free enterprise, private property and the accumulation of capital. It is also not an accident that, as Islam spread to the East, its first ports of call were the commercial entrepots of South, Southeast and East Asia, with Islam taking root among the mercantile communities there.
Secondly, what is happening today in the Muslim world is not a novel departure or the invention of something new. ‘Newness’ requires the introduction of radical contingency and/or alterity that radically changes the ontological and existential status of something. Yet this is not happening in the field of Muslim commerce, trade and finance: For, all that Muslims are doing is appropriating the tools and norms of commerce to serve their own communitarian ends. A red car that is painted blue is still the same car, and has not turned into another object altogether. Likewise Muslims, in their engagement with modern commerce today, have not disturbed or rejected the rudimentary rules of finance and trade, but merely appropriating the tools of the trade to serve their ends.
Thirdly, the development of a Muslim business sector is good news for all, it serves as a means of developing societies, generating and distributing new wealth, and also as a bridge-building mechanism in times of crisis when the relation between the West and the Muslim world is not as rosy as it could be. Muslims particularly Muslim capitalists want to make money and enjoy the same standard of living that they see being enjoyed in other developed countries in the world. If proof was still needed of the underlying goodwill and fondness for the West, it can be found in the ways in which Muslim entrepreneurs today have merely grafted Western products and services such as fast food, entertainment and leisure culture into their own respective social contexts. The development of things like ‘Muslim cola’ as typified by Zam-Zam Cola, Mecca Cola, etal. testifies to the fact that Muslims actually adore and covet goods and services that have for a long time been produced by Western industrial society.
The emergence of Muslim commerce should therefore be seen not as a block or obstacle but rather as the opening of a new terrain of commercial possibilities and opportunities for business communities to come together across the world, to explore, develop and service a vital consumer market that is aware of its economic clout and the opportunity this brings with it.
At a time when the media constantly bombards us with images of societies in turmoil and instances of inter-cultural conflict and violence, the entrepreneurs of the West and the Muslim world may well have another role to play namely as cultural bridge-builders and cultural entrepreneurs who may help to create that vital bridging capital which brings societies together instead of tearing them apart.
(Dr Farish A. Noor is a Malaysian political scientist and historian)
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