Transparency.org has publishes a Corruption Perceptions Index that rates the level of corruption in the world’s nations.
The most recent year for which there is data is 2011. The results are instructive for observers of Shariah Compliant Finance.
Shariah-Compliant Finance is often touted by the financial jihadists as “ethical” investment. There are a variety of reasons why this claim is specious, but the report from Transparency.org provides us with a new angle.
Their corruption index ranks 182 nations around the world.
Of the top 10 least corrupt nations in the world, none is an Islamic republic or a predominantly Muslim nation.
Of the bottom 10 most corrupt nations in the world, 6 are either Islamic republics or are predominantly Muslim nations (Somalia, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Sudan, and Iraq).
The Islamic Republic of Iran, which has by far the greatest amount of Shariah-compliant assets in the world, ranks 120th out of 182.
Saudi Arabia ranks 57th. Malaysia, Asia’s center of Shariah Finance, ranks 60th. Others of note:
• Pakistan ranks 134th (actually tied with Lebanon)
• Libya ranks 168th
• Yemen ranks 164th
• Egypt ranks 112th
• Syria ranks 129th
• Indonesia ranks 100th
• Turkey ranks 61st
• The USA ranks 24th and Israel 36th.
The point of this is that the presence of Islam or Shariah evidently does not guarantee a superior level of ethics and investors need to be aware of the misleading claims from the financial jihadists who spread that myth.
h/t Money Jihad blog
