INTRODUCTION

Alhumdullilah - by the mercy of Allah (swt) the Islamic world has been endowed with one of the most valuable natural resources in the modern world Oil. Of all proven oil reserves 65% are in the Middle East. If the known oil reserves of Muslim Africa are included — the proportion of the world’s oil reserves that lie in Islamic lands rises to over 70% - i.e. 7 out of 10 barrels of all know oil reserves. If we add to this the 44% reserves of natural gas in the Islamic world, of which 36% lie in the Middle East, there is an enormous abundance of energy resources in the Muslim lands.

POOR STATISTICS OF MUSLIM WORLD DESPITE HAVING HUGE OIL RESOURCES

Given that much of oil in the Middle East was discovered in the 1960’s and that since then there has been almost uninterrupted production averaging several million barrels a day, the nations of the Arab world would be expected to be leaders in the region if not the world. As an example since 1965 Saudi Arabia alone has pumped a total of 941 billion barrels of oil. This is equivalent to Kuwait’s current total oil reserves. At a conservative $15 a barrel this amounts to revenues of nearly $1.5 trillion. However, the generated wealth does not appear to have resulted in development and progress when one looks at the region’s statistics:

Despite being endowed with huge amounts of arable land, most Arab nations are not self-sufficient in food and many import large amounts of staple and basic foodstuff.

Poverty - unheard of in some rich Arab countries a decade ago - is rising, with the proportions of people living on less than $2 a day growing.

Regional underemployment is high despite high educational achievement in some countries. Actual unemployment is also growing.

In the so called ‘rich’ Arab countries infrastructure built in the wake of the oil price boom in the 1 970s and I 980s is in disrepair at a time when demand for public services such as health and education have never been as great.

Nationalist and territorial disputes threaten water supplies in the Middle East - one of the most arid regions of the world.

None of the countries can be considered among industrial nations.

Despite the abundance of oil the Islamic world at the most basic level is unable to independently cater for the basic needs its people. Despite still possessing huge oil reserves many of these economies have large public sector debt and all face huge challenges in the near term. Population growth rates in the Arab world are among the highest in the world and the

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demand for health care and education is expanding rapidly. The young who make up a significant, in some cases a majority, of the population will soon need jobs and homes.

ORGANIZATION OF ARAB PETROLEUM EXPORTING COUNTRIES

On 9 January 1968 three of the (then) most conservative Arab oil states Kuwait, Libya and Saudi Arabia agreed in Beirut to found OAPEC, aiming to separate oil production and sale from politics in the wake of the halfhearted 1967 oil embargo related to the Six Day War. Such use of the oil weapon in the struggle against Israel had been regularly proposed at Arab Petroleum Congresses, but it took this war for it to happen. However, Saudi Arabia's oil production was up 9% for that year, and the main embargo lasted only ten days and was completely ended by the Khartoum Conference.

OAPEC was originally intended to be a conservative Arab political organization which by its restriction in membership to countries whose main export was oil would exclude governments seen as radical, like Egypt and Algeria, and had the additional rule that the three founders' approval was necessary for new members to join. The original aim was to control the oil weapon and prevent its use from being swayed by popular emotion. Iraq initially declined to join, preferring to work under the umbrella of the Arab League, as it considered OAPEC too conservative.[1] Equally, the three founders considered Iraq too radical and did not want it as a member.[2] However, by early 1972, the criterion for admission changed to oil being an important, rather than principal source of revenue, Algeria, Iraq, Syria and Egypt had been admitted, and the organization became much more activist, contrary to the original intention.

1973 was a turning point for the organization. In October that year, the forces of Egypt and Syria attempted to overwhelm the state of Israel in what would be known as the Yom Kippur War. Ten days after the war started, on October 16, 1973, Kuwait hosted separate meetings of both OAPEC and the Persian Gulf members of OPEC (including Iran). OAPEC resolved to cut oil production 5% monthly "until the Israeli forces are completely evacuated from all the Arab territories occupied in the June 1967 war..." The embargo would last for some five months before it was lifted in March 1974 after negotiations at the Washington Oil Summit. Its aftereffects, though, would linger throughout the rest of the decade. For the oil exporting countries, the embargo was the first sign of their ability to leverage their production for political gains. A number of them would now use this sense of control to renegotiate the contracts they had made with the companies that had discovered and exploited their resources. Ironically, though, the vastly increased revenues would prove addictive, and a unified OAPEC oil embargo was never again possible.

In 1979, Egypt was expelled from OAPEC for signing the Camp David Accords, although it was readmitted a decade later.

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OAPEC is currently regarded as a regional specialized international organization and focuses on organizing cooperation on oil development, collective projects and regional integration.

ISLAM AND OIL

Anybody that has seen the film “Syrianna” is certainly convinced of the role and power of oil in the Arab and Muslim world and its linkage with the rest of the world’s economy through the involvement of multinationals that want to assure their access to the Middle East’s energy resources. Yet what is not clear is how direct the link between oil and Islam is. After all, Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran, Algeria, Indonesia, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and (in part) Nigeria cooperate within OPEC acting like any other monopolies to assure that their product – oil – is sold to the rest of the world at the best market price they can get. In fact, the Persian Gulf countries (Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE) produce about 27% of the world's oil, while holding 57% of the world's crude oil reserves. Besides oil, the Persian Gulf region also has huge reserves of natural gas, accounting for 45% of total proven world gas reserves.

When we make reference to Islam, we should preferably refer to the Islam’s keeping in mind that the Islamic faith is divided or fragmented both theologically and culturally. Since its origins, Islam has been composed of various sects, schools and currents that propound concurrent visions with regard to religion, doctrine and practices. While Islamic movements would like to recreate the unity of the community of believers, the fact is that the Sunnis, which account for 80-85% of the world’s Muslims, and the Shiites, are divided. The division is even more marked, especially in the wider Middle East in the split between Shiite Iran and most of the Sunni Arab world where fears of a Shiite ark led by Iran and supported by Iraq’s Shiite and its proxy, Hezbollah, in Lebanon.

The capacity of influence of resource rich Iran should not be underestimated. A common feature of all Muslim states, especially in the wider Middle East, has been the attempt to overcome their colonial pasts and their dependence of their previous western masters. Iranians were already negatively predisposed with the overthrow of the Mossadeq government in 1953 which is frequently cited as an example of western interference. At the time, Mohammed Mossadeq, the popular nationalist leader of Iran, decided to nationalize the country’s oil companies and in particular the dominant Anglo-Iranian Company. This led to American and British involvement in his overthrow. Symbolically, the Iranian Revolution of 1979 has represented for Islamists the death knell of western influence in that country with the deposing of the Shah’s corrupt and western supported government. The longevity of the revolutionary government and its current defiance of the western world with the clamor caused by its nuclear ambitions make it a potential threat both to the Sunni Arab regimes and to the US and its allies that are still dependent on the region’s energy resources.

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With regard to the Sunnis, the Iranian Revolution upset the balance of power of the modern Islamic world which had been under Saudi hegemony since the creation of the Conference of Islamic States in 1969 and the victory of “petro-Islam” during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. The oil shock of 1973 when oil-producing Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia, announced that they planned to restrict oil supplies to the West “in a bid to exert their collective but independent power against the West” marked the culmination of efforts by Muslim states throughout the 20th century to escape their colonial pasts. It was also the high point of pan-Arab cooperation.

Yet the Arab Sunni world has not been able to remain united. The Gulf War of 1990-1991 is indicative of the attempts by Saddam Hussein to claim leadership of the Arab world. He had tried to do the same thing during the stalemated Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988. Saddam Hussein was keenly interested in elevating Iraq to a strong regional power. A successful invasion of Iran would have made Iraq the dominant power in the Persian Gulf region, and would have strengthened its lucrative oil trade. The war was disastrous for both Iran and Iraq as it stalled economic development and disrupted oil exports, brought about excessive casualties and caused huge debts.

The invasion of Kuwait by Iraq in 1990 tore the Sunni world asunder as Iraq claimed to recover its “19th province” which it felt had been taken away from it by the artificial border demarcations by the British colonial authorities and attempted to make Iraq a regional heavyweight and a leader among the disinherited Arab Muslims that were not able to enjoy the wealth generated by Kuwait’s ruling few.

The war aside, despite the revenues generated by oil, the economic record has been relatively poor. Saudi Arabia, for example, despite sitting on the world’s biggest oil reserves, has managed to reach a GDP per head that is a third less than that of Portugal (the poorest country in EU15). Its society is also highly unequal as the royal family lives lavishly while ordinary citizens are poor.

As a result, the exploitation of oil not only brought immeasurable new wealth but new and increasingly bitter social tensions as well. Oil wealth has also inhibited the development of representative political institutions giving rise to religious extremist movements threatening the regimes in power and increasing instability in the wider Middle East. The eclipse of pan-Arabism has also contributed in making Islamic fundamentalism and some of its most extreme manifestations as the most attractive alternatives to the disenchanted.

The combination of oil and volatility has also impacted on the response of the United States and the rest of the western world in engaging in the region to induce stability among unstable states on the verge of (if not undergoing) social, religious and political restlessness. In a world where energy demand continues to grow as emerging economies such as China and India compete for fuel with the West and increase demand, the current model of energy security which focuses primarily on how to handle any disruption of oil supplies from producing countries needs revamping. As a result, both the United States and the European Union seem

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to be readapting and developing strategies based on diversification be it in the production of new nuclear power plants and “clean coal” technologies, renewable resources, or pipeline deals with Russia whose fields have been central to the growth of worldwide supply in recent years.

What does all this mean? The multiple fissures in the Islamic world are beginning to make the use of oil relatively obsolete as an instrument of influence. In other words, long gone are the glory days of the oil shocks of the 1970s and Arab and Muslim cooperation. The energy alternatives provided by major non-OPEC producers such as Russia and the plans for further diversification to reduce dependence by the rest of the world forces Muslim states to begin focusing on their internal contradictions and the rise of transnational extreme fundamentalist movements. It forces them to concentrate on the exigencies of modernization and development through the better utilization of their oil wealth for fear of an implosion. In this context, the relationship between Islam and oil is symptomatic of the ability of Muslim regimes to better distribute their oil wealth.

BATTLE FOR MUSLIM COUNTRIES’ OIL

Throughout history, "wars of religion" have served to obscure the economic and strategic interests behind the conquest and invasion of foreign lands. "Wars of religion" were invariably fought with a view to securing control over trading routes and natural resources.

The Crusades extending from the 11th to the 14th Century are often presented by historians as "a continuous series of military-religious expeditions made by European Christians in the hope of wresting the Holy Land from the infidel Turks." The objective of the Crusades, however, had little to do with religion. The Crusades largely consisted, through military action, in challenging the dominion of the Muslim merchant societies, which controlled the Eastern trade routes.

The "Just War" supported the Crusades. War was waged with the support of the Catholic Church, acting as an instrument of religious propaganda and indoctrination, which was used in the enlistment throughout Europe of thousands of peasants, serfs and urban vagabonds.

America's Crusade in Central Asia and the Middle East

In the eyes of public opinion, possessing a "just cause" for waging war is central. A war is said to be Just if it is waged on moral, religious or ethical grounds.

America's Crusade in Central Asia and the Middle East is no exception. The "war on terrorism" purports to defend the American Homeland and protect the "civilized world". It is upheld as a "war of religion", a "clash of civilizations", when in fact the main objective of this war is to secure control and corporate ownership over the region's extensive oil wealth, while also imposing under the helm of the IMF and the World Bank (now under the leadership of Paul

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Wolfowitz), the privatization of State enterprises and the transfer of the countries' economic assets into the hands of foreign capital.

The Just War theory upholds war as a "humanitarian operation". It serves to camouflage the real objectives of the military operation, while providing a moral and principled image to the invaders. In its contemporary version, it calls for military intervention on ethical and moral grounds against "rogue states" and "Islamic terrorists", which are threatening the Homeland.

Possessing a "just cause" for waging war is central to the Bush administration's justification for invading and occupying both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Taught in US military academies, a modern-day version of the "Just War" theory has been embodied into US military doctrine. The "war on terrorism" and the notion of "preemption" are predicated on the right to "self defense." They define "when it is permissible to wage war": jus ad bellum.

Jus ad bellum serves to build a consensus within the Armed Forces command structures. It also serves to convince the troops that the enemy is "evil" and that they are fighting for a "just cause". More generally, the Just War theory in its modern day version is an integral part of war propaganda and media disinformation, applied to gain public support for a war agenda.

The Battle for Oil

War builds a humanitarian agenda. Throughout history, vilification of the enemy has been applied time and again. The Crusades consisted in demonizing the Turks as infidels and heretics, with a view to justifying military action.

Demonization serves geopolitical and economic objectives. Likewise, the campaign against "Islamic terrorism" (which is supported covertly by US intelligence) supports the conquest of oil wealth. The term "Islamo-fascism," serves to degrade the policies, institutions, values and social fabric of Muslim countries, while also upholding the tenets of "Western democracy" and the "free market" as the only alternative for these countries.

The US led war in the broader Middle East Central Asian region consists in gaining control over more than sixty percent of the world's reserves of oil and natural gas. The Anglo-American oil giants also seek to gain control over oil and gas pipeline routes out of the region. (See table and maps below).

Muslim countries including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Yemen, Libya, Nigeria, Algeria, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, possess between 66.2 and 75.9 percent of total oil reserves, depending on the source and methodology of the estimate.

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In contrast, the United States of America has barely 2 percent of total oil reserves. Western countries including its major oil producers (Canada, the US, Norway, the UK, Denmark and Australia) control approximately 4 percent of total oil reserves. (In the alternative estimate of the Oil and Gas Journal which includes Canada's oil sands, this percentage would be of the order of 16.5%. See table below).

The largest share of the World's oil reserves lies in a region extending (North) from the tip of Yemen to the Caspian sea basin and (East) from the Eastern Mediterranean coastline to the Persian Gulf. This broader Middle East- Central Asian region, which is the theater of the US-led "war on terrorism" encompasses according to the estimates of World Oil, more than sixty percent of the World's oil reserves.

I raq has five times more oil than the United States.

Muslim countries possess at least 16 times more oil than the Western countries.

The major non-Muslim oil reserve countries are Venezuela, Russia, Mexico, China and Brazil.

Demonization is applied to an enemy, which possesses three quarters of the world's oil reserves. "Axis of evil", "rogue States", "failed nations", "Islamic terrorists": demonization and vilification are the ideological pillars of America's "war on terror". They serve as a casus belli for waging the battle for oil.

The Battle for Oil requires the demonization of those who possess the oil. The enemy is characterized as evil, with a view to justifying military action including the mass killing of civilians. The Middle East Central Asian region is heavily militarized. The oil fields are encircled: NATO war ships stationed in the Eastern Mediterranean (as part of a UN "peace keeping" operation), US Carrier Strike Groups and Destroyer Squadrons in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian deployed as part of the "war on terrorism".

The ultimate objective, combining military action, covert intelligence operations and war propaganda, is to break down the national fabric and transform sovereign countries into open economic territories, where natural resources can be plundered and confiscated under "free market" supervision. This control also extends to strategic oil and gas pipeline corridors (e.g. Afghanistan).

Demonization is a PSYO. Pressure used to convey public opinion and build a consensus in favor of war. Psychological warfare is directly sponsored by the Pentagon and the US intelligence apparatus. It is not limited to assassinating or executing the rulers of Muslim countries, it extends to entire populations. It also targets Muslims in Western Europe and North America. It purports to break national consciousness and the ability to resist the invader. It denigrates Islam. It creates social divisions. It is intended to divide national societies and ultimately trigger "civil war". While it creates an environment which facilitates the outright appropriation of the countries' resources, at the same time, it potentially backlashes, creates a new national

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consciousness, develops inter-ethnic solidarity, and brings people together in confronting the invaders.

It is worth noting that the triggering of sectarian divisions and "civil wars" is contemplated in the process of redrawing of the map of the Middle East, where countries are slated to be broken up and transformed into territories. The map of the New Middle East, although not official, has been used by the US National War Academy. It was recently published in the Armed Forces Journal (June 2006). In this map, nation states are broken up, international borders are redefined along sectarian-ethnic lines, broadly in accordance with the interests of the Anglo-American oil giants (See Map below). The map has also been used in a training program at NATO's Defense College for senior military officers.

The Oil Lies in Muslim Lands

The oil lies in Muslim lands. Vilification of the enemy is part and parcel of Eurasia energy geopolitics. It is a direct function of the geographic distribution of the World's oil and gas reserves. If the oil were in countries occupied predominantly by Buddhists or Hindus, one would expect that US foreign policy would be directed against Buddhists and Hindus, who would also be the object of vilification..

In the Middle East war theater, Iran and Syria, which are part of the "axis of evil", are the next targets according to official US statements.

US sponsored "civil wars" have also been conducted in several other strategic oil and gas regions including Nigeria, the Sudan, Colombia, Somalia, Yemen, Angola, not to mention Chechnya and several republics of the former Soviet Union. Ongoing US sponsored "civil wars", which often include the channeling of covert support to paramilitary groups, have been triggered in the Darfur region of Sudan as well as in Somalia, Darfur possesses extensive oil reserves. In Somalia, lucrative concessions have already been granted to four Anglo-American oil giants.

Globalization and the Conquest of the World's Energy Resources

The collective demonization of Muslims, including the vilification of Islam, applied Worldwide, constitutes at the ideological level, an instrument of conquest of the World's energy resources. It is part of the broader economic, political mechanisms underlying the New World Order.

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Oil Reserves by Country

(Proven reserves in billions of barrels)

Rank Country

Percent of World Reserves

World Oil, December 2004

Percent of World Reserves

Oil & Gas Journal, January 2006

1. Saudi Arabia 24.2 262.1 20.6 266.8

2. Canada* 0.4 4.7 13.8 178.8

3. Iran 12.1 130.8 10.3 132.5

4. Iraq 10.6 115.0 8.9 115.0

5. Kuwait 9.2 99.7 7.9 101.5

6. United Arab Emirates

6.5 69.9 7.6 97.8

7. Venezuela* 4.8 52.4 6.1 79.7

8. Russia 6.2 67.1 4.6 60.0

9. Libya 3.2 33.6 3.0 39.1

10. Nigeria 3.4 36.6 2.7 35.9

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11. United States 2.0 21.4 1.7 21.4

12. China 1.4 15.4 1.4 18.3

13. Qatar 1.8 20 1.2 15.2

14. Mexico 1.4 14.8 1.0 12.9

15. Algeria 1.4 15.3 0.9 11.4

16. Brazil 1.0 11.2 0.9 11.2

17. Kazakhstan 0.8 9.0 0.7 9.0

18. Norway 0.9 9.9 0.6 7.7

19. Azerbaijan 0.6 7.0 0.5 7.0

20. India 0.5 4.9 0.4 5.8

21 Oman 0.4. 4.8 0.4 5.5

22 Angola 0.8. 9.0 0.4 5.4

23 Ecuador 0.5 5.5 0.4 4.6

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24 Indonesia 0.5 5.3 0.3 4.3

25 UK 0.4 3.9 0.3 4.0

26 Yemen 0.3 3.0 0.3 4.0

27 Egypt 0.3 3.6 0.3 3.7

28 Malaysia 0.3 3.0 0.2 3.0

29 Gabon 0.2 2.2 0.2 2.5

30 Syria 0.2 2.3 0.2 2.5

31 Argentina 0.2 2.3 0.2 2.3

32 Equatorial Guinea

0.2 1,8 0.0 0.0

32 Colombia 0.1 1.5 0.1 1.5

33 Vietnam 0.1 1,3 0.6

34 Chad 0.0 0.0 0.1 1.5

35 Australia 0.3 3.6 0.1 1.4

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36 Brunei 0.1 1.1 0.1 1.4

37 Denmark 0.1 1.3 0.1 1.3

38 Peru 0.1 0.9 0.1 1.0

Total Muslim Countries**

75.9 822.1 66.2 855.6

Total Western World (EU, North America, Australia)

4.1 44.8 16.5 213.3

Other Countries 20.6 214.9 17.3 223.6

World Total 100.0 1,081.8 100.0 1,292.5

Source: EIO: Energy Information Administration

REASONS FOR CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS OF MUSLIM COUNTRIES

Many of the Gulf countries are in reality large cities and are not modern states at all. Many do not have the capacity or capability — standing army, agriculture and industry — for self-sustaining growth. The makeup of the Gulf region reflects the design of the colonist powers to break-up the Muslim world. The make-up does not reflect any productive bond between the

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people. Indeed, were it not for the oil many of the states of the GCC would find it difficult to achieve self-sustaining growth.

Despite several decades of oil production including the hike in prices in 1973, which generated hundreds of billions of dollars of revenue for Gulf exporters, most of the economic activity remains dependent on the governments’ spending of oil revenues. While government planers have developed infrastructure-roads, airports, hospitals and schools - particularly in the Gulf, there has not really been an imperative — until recently — to diversify economies away from oil. Consequently many of the economies remain precariously dependent for much of their economic growth — and much needed export earnings - on the international price of crude.

A number of reasons arc presented for the current state of affairs including:

Islam: Theocratic/Islamic regimes — which know little about economics, let alone modern day demands from globalization, technological change and international money markets.

Cradle to grave welfare systems particularly in the rich Gulf States, which produce unproductive labor and budgets deficits. This in turn leads to foreign borrowing.

Lack of a free market: High tariffs, nationalized industry, food and fuel subsidies create inefficient protected industries.

The Arab! Israeli conflict: This creates political instability and deters foreign investment in the region, which is seen as a major contributor to economic growth.

Over reliance on oil and a lack of industrial diversification exposes the economics to external shocks in oil prices.

The freedom factor: Women lack ‘rights and freedom’ and so it is thought that half the economic potential of a nation is unused.

No new/creative thoughts due to closed authoritarian societies. No free press.

These above reasons can be characterized as: Wholly incorrect; politically and ideologically motivated; and not going to the root of the matter.

MYTH FROM REALITY

Islam is not to blame because none of the countries in the region actually implementing it holistically and comprehensively. Indeed, if we look historically at what has been implemented in the region:

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1970s: Nationalization and state subsidies. After independence oil companies throughout the region were rationalized in some way or form- Iraq in the 1 960s and Saudi in the 1 970s as an example.• 1980s: IMF restructuring policies. Many countries adopted advice from IMF economists of balanced budgets. The insistence by the TMF on Egypt to remove subsidies of stable foodstuffs led to food riots in Egypt in 1977 as an example.

1990s: Free-market policies. The IMF and World Bank prescription was: liberalize economies; which meant privatization — particularly in the lucrative energy sector. Other initiatives included the removal of state subsidies, reform of banking including the charging a real interest rate to encourage savings and foreign direct investment. Saudi Arabia is an example here with deregulation and free market policies being pursued in order to encourage foreign direct investment.

ISLAM’S VIEW TOWARDS THE ECONOMY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

The economic system in Islam determines how to distribute the wealth, how to possess it, and how to spend it or dispose. This is based on a unique viewpoint that Islam has towards ownership that is different from Capitalism and Socialism.

Property and human effort are components of wealth and they are the means that produce benefit. Islam interferes directly in the question of utilising some properties — so it prohibits the use of some commodities such as wine and dead foodstuffs. Similarly, it prohibits benefiting from some of man’s actions such as prostitution. Additionally, regarding the method of possessing property and man’s effort Islam has put numerous laws regulating this ownership, such as laws of hunting, land reclamation, and the laws of leasing, manufacturing, inheritance, donations and wills.

However, regarding generating the production of wealth, Islam encourages that through motivating the people generally to earn. Islam did not interfere in defining the technical manner of increasing production or the quantity of production, rather it left that to the people to achieve as they like. This falls in the realm of economic science and as with other sciences is universal to all nations and it is not associated with a particular ideology. This encourages innovation and technical development to increase efficiency and output.

Thus Islam views wealth ownership and wealth utilization differently from increasing production. The former being economic system based on a particular viewpoint, and the latter being part of economic science and therefore universally shared by all nations.

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This is in stark contrast to Capitalism, which treats both economic science and system as one subject. So the distribution of commodities and services is included in the subject of the production of these services and commodities. The implication of such an incorrect understanding is that Capitalism solution to all economic problems is merely to increase production or economic growth.

ISLAM’S VIEW TOWARDS THE OIL & GAS SECTOR

Crude oil is considered a Public Utility (Al-Milkiyyah Al-Ammah). Assets, which are public property, are those, which the Lawgiver stated as belonging to the community as a whole, and those He (SWT) prevented the individual from possessing.

lbn Abbas narrated that the Prophet (SAW) said: “Muslims are partners (associates) in three things: inwater, pastures and fire,” reported by Abu Dawud.

Anas narrated from Ibn ‘Abbas adding. “And its price is haram”.

lbn Majah narrated from Abu Hurairah (ra) that the Prophet (SAW) said: “Three things are not prevented from (the people); the water, the pastures and the fire”.

ISLAM’S VIEW TOWARDS OPEC

OPEC’s eleven members (10 of which are Muslim countries) collectively supply about 40 per cent of the world’s oil output, and possess more than three-quarters of the world’s total proven crude oil reserves. OPEC under the leadership of Saudi Arabia manipulates the world oil market by assigning each member country a production quota — in realty fixing output. In fact, OPEC has been politically manipulated through Saudi Arabia to generally serve the interests of capitalist (oil consuming) nations. Saudi Arabia has acted as a swing’ supplier increasing or decreasing output to stabilise world prices to serve the interests of industrial nations.

Mohammad (saw) forbade practices like hoarding which manipulate the market.

Narrated from Ma’akal ibn Yasar that he said the Messenger of Allah (SWT) said: “Whosoever was involved in any of the prices of the Muslims, so as to increase it for them it would be due on Allah to place him in a great fire at the Day of Judgement”.

Thus, the practices of OPEC are contrary to the shar’a.

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HOW MUSLIM COUNTRIES CAN BECOME DEVELOPED, SELF-SUFFICIENT AND PROSPEROUS?

Most Muslim countries have geostrategic importance as well as rich natural resources (e.g., natural gas and crude oil). These resources and strategic opportunities, however, are not being used effectively. In the Islamic world, 86% of the population's living standards fall below $2,000, 76% under $1,000, and 67% under $500 per year. When the Islamic world's total resources are considered,(1) this is quite a paradox: Roughly half of the petrol consumed in the West is exported from the Islamic world, as is 40% of the world's agricultural production.(2) Many economists and strategists freely admit that the world economy depends upon the Islamic world's oil and gas exports, in particular those of the Persian Gulf.(3)

The Persian Gulf holds two-thirds of the planet's discovered crude oil reserves. Data obtained from research concludes that Saudi Arabia alone holds 25.4% of the world's oil reserves, or 262 billion barrels. A further 11% is found in Iraq, 9.6 % in the UAE, 9.2 % in Kuwait, 8.6 % in Iran, 13% in other OPEC member states. The rest is distributed across the remainder of the world. (4) Research commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy shows that between 2000 and 2020, oil exports from the area will increase by 125%.(5) This means that the world will continue to meet most of its energy needs by imports from the Gulf region. Moreover, the Middle East has 40% of the global natural gas reserves; 35 % of these reserves are in the Gulf region. (6) Algeria, Libya, and other North African countries have 3.7 % of the world's reserves.

The Caucasus and Central Asia are also rich in oil, natural gas, and other natural resources. For instance, Kazakhstan has between 10-17.6 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, and its natural gas reserves are estimated at between 53 and 83 trillion cubic feet. Turkmenistan has between 98 and 155 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves, making it the fourth largest producer.(7) Some other Muslim countries have valuable mineral resources. For instance, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan are two of the world's leading gold producers. Turkey has one of the world's richest boron reserves, only recently discovered to be very important, and Tajikistan has the world's largest aluminum producing facilities.

These advantages will become more important in the twenty-first century, which some have already christened the "energy century." Energy is an essential element of modern society in terms of the military, industry, urbanization, and transport. Given that economic activity and manufacturing depend primarily upon energy, nations will do their best to achieve control over these energy resources. The Islamic world is not using its resources effectively, for many of its members lack the infrastructure and technology to increase the production and use their natural resources to develop their industries. Therefore, the resources' contributions to the country's economy are limited to export earnings. These countries do not have the means to process their own crude oil, use it in their industrial complexes, or to develop their industries. Worse still, some Muslim nations do not even have the necessary means to explore and

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research their natural resources or to discover and extract them. Explorations undertaken by foreign companies reveal that other Muslim nations have oil and gas reserves, but they cannot benefit from their resources.

Naturally, the ineffective use of natural resources is not the Islamic world's only economic problem. However, solving this problem can begin the process of solving many other problems. The economies of Muslim nations contain differences in structure and functioning. Some nations' economies depend upon mineral resources, such as the members of OPEC, while other nations' depend upon agriculture. These differences are also reflected, to some extent, in their social structures, such as the widely varying degrees of rural and urban populations. Developing complementary relationships and helping each other in their respective areas of expertise can turn these differences into a source of riches. All of this will be possible with the Islamic Union.

Mutual cooperation among Muslims, part of the Islamic code, must be adhered to by all Muslims, for God commands people to refrain from avarice and to guard the needy and support one another. In fact, destitute people have a due share of the believers' wealth (Qur'an, 51:19). As the Qur'an proclaims:

Those of you possessing affluence and ample wealth should not make oaths that they will not give to their relatives, the very poor, and those who have migrated in the way of God. Rather, they should pardon and overlook. Would you not love God to forgive you? God is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (Qur'an, 24:22)

He who has plenty should spend from his plenty, but he whose provision is restricted should spend from what God has given him. God does not demand from anyone more than He has given it. God will appoint ease after difficulty. (Qur'an, 65:7)

CONCLUSION

Thus, the Arab world specifically and the Muslim countries generally are at cross-roads: do they continue to fumble with pragmatic, inconsistent capitalist — IMF and World Bank — inspired policies and systems or do they embark on a radical solution. A solution that was applied and worked for 1300 years — the Khilafah State. The thoughts and systems applied in the Khaleefah brought the glory and honour and the development and progress from science and medicine to architecture and culture that this honoured Muslim Ummah currently yearns for.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://dimitriosworld.blogspot.com/2007/01/islam-and-oil.html

http://www.islamdaily.net/EN/Contents.aspx?AID=6263

http://mozadded1924.blog.ca/2010/02/14/the-islamic-world-and-oil-8008634/

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http://metaexistence.org/muslimoil.htm

http://mozadded1924.blog.ca/2010/02/14/the-islamic-world-and-oil-8008634/

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