A Global and Historical Comparison
Ahmet T. Kuru · 2019 · History
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Political scientist Ahmet T. Kuru examines why many Muslim-majority countries combine high levels of authoritarianism with low levels of socio-economic development. He rejects two common explanations: that Islam itself blocks democracy and progress, and that Western colonialism is the root cause. Between the ninth and twelfth centuries, he notes, Muslims were more developed than Western Europeans in philosophy, science and trade, and decline set in long before colonisation. In that early period many religious scholars kept their distance from rulers and were supported by merchants.
Kuru locates the turning point in the eleventh century, when an alliance between the ulema, or religious scholars, and military states began to form. It gradually sidelined independent intellectuals and the merchant class, and versions of it persist in many Muslim-majority states today.
Key insights
- Look at institutions and class relations, not only scripture or colonial history, when explaining why societies stagnate or flourish.
- Intellectual and economic creativity flourished when scholars and merchants were independent of the state; dependence on rulers tends to reward conformity over new ideas.
- When religious authorities and rulers legitimise each other, both gain security, but dissent, competition and innovation are squeezed out.
- Western Europe’s rise was not inevitable. Kuru links it to a gradual separation of religious and political authority and a stronger merchant class.
- Kuru’s remedy is not to abandon religion but to separate religious authority from state power and create room for independent thinkers and entrepreneurs.
Read it if you want a historical explanation for authoritarianism in Muslim-majority countries that goes beyond blaming Islam or colonialism.