Islamicity indices 2018: How has Nigeria fared?
Islamicity indices are a multidimensional benchmark aimed at assessing a society’s adherence to the teachings of the Qur’an and the practices of the Prophet. They provide a compass for countries to build effective institutions, reform and improve their performance. The indices assess 153 countries along four broad dimensions-economic, legal and governance, human and political rights, […]
Islamicity indices are a multidimensional benchmark aimed at assessing a society’s adherence to the teachings of the Qur’an and the practices of the Prophet. They provide a compass for countries to build effective institutions, reform and improve their performance. The indices assess 153 countries along four broad dimensions-economic, legal and governance, human and political rights, and international relations and are all combined into a fifth overall index.
The 2018 results published on 15 May, 2019 finds New Zealand to be the best performer as was the case in last year’s index, followed by Sweden, the Netherlands, Iceland, Switzerland and Ireland. The top 20 countries are those of Northern Europe, New Zealand, Canada, Australia and Japan. The top five performing Muslim countries are: the UAE (45), Albania (46), Malaysia (47), Qatar (48) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (60). Most Muslim countries are in the bottom half with Sudan (152) and Yemen (153) at the bottom. While the performance of Muslim countries in the overall index is bad, their performance on the Human and Political Rights Index is even worse with the highest ranking Muslim countries: Albania (43), Bosnia and Herzegovina (50), Kyrgyz Republic (76), Malaysia (79) and Lebanon (80).
In Nigeria’s context, the story is not different from other Muslim countries with poor performance experienced in the areas of legal and governance which was ranked 137 in 2017 and 138 in 2018, Human and Political Rights with 137 in 2017 and 138 in 2018 and finally, Human and Political Rights with 40 in 2017 and 82 in 2018. The only component that shows positive improvement is the overall economic performance with a ranking of 123 in 2017 and 116 in 2018 (note that the lower the number the better the ranking). Similarly, its overall ranking has dropped from 131 in 2017 to 133 in 2018.
These indices do not assess personal requirements of a Muslim (such as daily prayers, fasting and the like) or belief commitments, they are premised instead on Qur’anic goals and the extent of a society’s adherence to its institutional recommendations and governance. In a rule-abiding Muslim community there must be political and individual freedom, no poverty alongside wealth, economic prosperity, accountability of rulers and governments, and socio-economic justice. The work on these indices is a joint research effort by leading scholars around the world and is managed by the non-profit Islamicity Foundation. The project is founded by Hossein Askari, Emeritus Professor of International Business and International Affairs at the George Washington University and has already united scholars in more than 15 Muslim countries, representing over 50 percent of the global Muslim population.
Fatima Muhammad Abdulkarim (PhD), a country partner for Islamicity Foundation in Nigeria, wrote this piece from Jigawa State.