{"id":1951,"date":"2004-12-27T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2004-12-27T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/?p=1951"},"modified":"2004-12-27T02:00:00","modified_gmt":"2004-12-27T07:00:00","slug":"the_i_economy_any_substance_behind_the_show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/12\/the_i_economy_any_substance_behind_the_show\/","title":{"rendered":"Middle East economic boom: Any substance behind the show?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><table cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">\n<tr>\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/burj_dubai.jpg\" border=\"0\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"right\">\n<div class=\"caption\">Someone\u2019s compensating for something<\/div>\n<p><\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>This week, construction began in Dubai on the ultimate minaret: the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gizmo.com.au%2Fgo%2F3555%2F\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Burj Dubai<\/a>, a 160-story skyscraper that hopes to be the world\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ameinfo.com%2Fnews%2FDetailed%2F49427.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">tallest building<\/a> by far \u2013 twice as high as Chicago\u2019s Sears Tower and 1000 feet taller than New York\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com%2F2003%2FUS%2FNortheast%2F12%2F19%2Fwtc.plan%2F\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Freedom Tower<\/a> (and they\u2019re digging extra deep foundations in case they decide to make the closely-guarded real height even higher).  As if that weren\u2019t enough, located at the base of the building will be the world\u2019s largest shopping mall.   (<a href=\"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com%2Fhtml%2Fnationworld%2F2002131522_dubai27.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Vegas<\/a> on the Gulf?)  The message (if it didn\u2019t knock you upside the head) is that the Arab \u2013 and by extension, Muslim \u2013 economic boom is real and here to stay.  But is it?  The growth of the worldwide Islamic financial sector, for example, is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.onlineopinion.com.au%2Fview.asp%3Farticle%3D2872\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">impressive<\/a> indeed: from nearly nothing a decade ago to a global worth of $200 billion today.  And the online business journal <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dinarstandard.com\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">DinarStandard.com<\/a> recently <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ameinfo.com%2Fnews%2FDetailed%2F50125.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">posted<\/a> a list of the top 100 businesses of the Muslim world.  While some of the companies show <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dinarstandard.com%2Frankings%2Fds100%2Fprofiles.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">impressive performance<\/a> in a diverse set of industries (construction, banking, media, etc.), the top revenue generators are characterized by two factors that the Islamic economic engine hasn\u2019t managed to shake yet: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dinarstandard.com%2Frankings%2Fds100%2Fanalysis.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">dominance<\/a> by the oil sector and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dinarstandard.com%2Frankings%2Fds100%2Ffilter_gov.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">government ownership<\/a> (usually a combination of the two).  Other problems hobbling the Muslim economic advance include endemic <a href=\"http:\/\/www.globalcorruptionreport.org%2F\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">corruption<\/a> (both governmental and corporate), lack of business or educational <a href=\"http:\/\/www.islamonline.org%2FEnglish%2FNews%2F2004-12%2F21%2Farticle04.shtml\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">innovation<\/a>, and global instability.  But with a market size of over a billion, and Muslim markets and business practices becoming increasingly sophisticated, you might start seeing <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ameinfo.com%2Fnews%2FDetailed%2F49427.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">many more<\/a> \u201cBurj Dubais\u201d popping up all over the Muslim world \u2013 with strong foundations (both literal and economic) to prop them up.<\/p>\n<p><i><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.\n<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Economies in Muslim countries seem to be doing very well, as evidenced by the building boom of supertall structures.  But is there a strong economic foundation underneath?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":530,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-briefings"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Middle East economic boom: Any substance behind the show?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Economies in Muslim countries seem to be doing very well, as evidenced by the building boom of supertall structures. 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