OIC at a croosroads four decades on

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
7

Islam, like Christianity a multibillion dollar religious enterprise, has no “enemies.” Paranoia is another problem among many Muslims. No one talks of a global conspiracy against Buddhism or “enemies of Confucianism.” There is no global conspiracy against Islam. What would be the motive? Mass conversions to Christianity? Do you see any efforts to do that? Mass conversions are things of the past. Is the motive to prevent Muslims from becoming powerful politically, economically, and militarily? This makes no sense. The Muslim world is a backwater and falling further and further behind. There is no need to waste time to keep those who are falling further behind “down.” Muslims have done quite well at that for the past 300 years. Who is rising? China and India. Why is there no conspiracy to keep them weak? They are real threats; Syrian or Sudanese power is a figment of some people’s imaginations.

What trade do you want among Muslim countries? Arab states trade little with even each other. What makes you think they then would want to trade with Pakistan or Senegal? What logic is there in Turkey emphasizing trade with Senegal and not neighboring Greece?

As to a shift, there will be a natural shift everywhere to more trade with the East due to the rise of China and India. However, note that these are both non-Muslim powers. Their rise to superpower status will only push the Islamic world even more to the periphery unless Islamic nations begin to finally modernize and reform.

Here are Pakistan’s largest trading partners:

                    [Exports - partners](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/docs/notesanddefs.html?countryName=Pakistan&countryCode=pk&regionCode=sas#2050):                        
                                                                                                          [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/graphics/field_listing_on.gif](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2050.html?countryName=Pakistan&countryCode=pk&regionCode=sas&#pk)                                                                                                                                      US 16%, UAE 11.7%, Afghanistan 8.6%, UK 4.4%, China 4.4% (2008)

                    [Imports - partners](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/docs/notesanddefs.html?countryName=Pakistan&countryCode=pk&regionCode=sas#2061):                        
                                                                                                          [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/graphics/field_listing_on.gif](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2061.html?countryName=Pakistan&countryCode=pk&regionCode=sas&#pk)                                                                                                                                      China 15.4%, Saudi Arabia 12.2%, UAE 11.3%, Kuwait 5.5%, US 4.8% (2008)

So one-fifth of Pakistan’s exports go to two Christian powers alone. I notice that many Muslims decry relations with Western powers yet don’t complain about the $$$$ they make from them. How would Pakistan replace the loss of that trade? Will Nigeria step in to fill the void?

~*~ TIME PASS~*~ MaY...........