Muslim support for debt forgiveness

Sahib Mustaqim Bleher, General Secretary of the Islamic Party of Britain.

The Qur'an encourages debt cancellation whenever a debtor is unable, due to his particular circumstances, to repay the debt: “and if (the debtor) is in difficulty, then (there should be) postponement until (he is) at ease, but that you should give it as charity is (even) better for you, if you knew.” (2:280)

As a religion which counts obligatory regular charity as one of the `five pillars' on which it is built, Islam cannot be practised without due regard to its social dimension, nor without reference to economic justice. The emphasis in the Qur'an is, however, put upon prevention of the very situation which makes the jubilee a necessity. In line with the Qur'anic demand that “wealth should not only circulate between the rich amongst you” (59:7) Islam categorically forbids the taking of interest to prevent the accumulation of large capital sums. Interestingly, to tolerate wrong-doing, or oppression, is considered as unacceptable as the perpetration of it.

The destruction of economic equity through exploitation of people in difficulty, by usurious means, is linked to war. We witness in economic relations that war very frequently is either the result of a debtor nation's desperation which forces her to invade a neighbouring country, or oppress her own people, to stop them from rebelling against the harshness of the economic conditions imposed upon them by a domestic finance system geared up to the repayment of foreign debt.

It is a sad fact that the Muslim countries of today are all up to their necks in foreign debt obligations, and most of them count amongst the poorest of the world. The myth of oil-rich Arabia very often disguises the fact that the majority of Muslims live in the Third World - in fact over 80% of the world's refugees are Muslims. Their countries are torn apart by economic hardship and war, even though many of them are rich in natural resources.

The world-wide indebtedness of countries to a monetary system policed by the IMF has become a means of ensuring that the richer, dominating countries of the world can continue to drain the world's resources without fear of retribution from the poor of the world. All talk of globalism and free trade cannot disguise the reality of a new age of economic imperialism and colonialism.

Muslims can whole-heartedly support the concept of Jubilee 2000 calling for world-wide debt forgiveness. Indeed they need to take it a step forward by calling for a fundamental change in the way we run our economic affairs.

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