Tackling extremism a must for economic progress

Last week, Al Ittihad Annual Forum discussed many important issues related to the connection between social development and the positions of various blocs including religious movements.

The forum, titled "Religion and Society in The Arab World", focussed on stability, which is a key factor in economic growth and social development.

Thus, any extremist acts that jeopardise this stability must have negative impacts on development and investment rates, which would lead to unemployment and a decline in living standards.

There are many examples of countries that suffered the negative impacts of instability, such as Lebanon, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Extremism leads to vandalism, and not just violent vandalism, but undermining the economy through making radical decisions that result in a decline in production, low productivity of workers and a shortage of commodities and services.

We do not need to go way back in history to remember the effects of extremism. It is enough to recall the tragedies of the twentieth century, starting with Joseph Stalin's nationalisation of agricultural lands, which was done unprofessionally and led to the spread of famine and the subsequent death of millions of peasants in Russia.

A few years later, the extremist Nazi Party took power in Germany under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, leading to the Second World War and the death of more than fifty million innocent people.

In the 1960s, China's Cultural Revolution, led by Mao Tse Tung, had a severe negative impact on Chinese society and led to the domination of the village over the city.

Among the mistakes of the Cultural Revolution was the sidelining of skilled professionals in cities, which are the centre of cultural and academic activity and are more developed than villages.

In the past three decades, we have seen how extremism destroyed important economic establishments in some Arab countries, such as Algeria, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.

Damage

It also caused damages to Egypt's tourism sector, which is considered one of the most important sources of national income and provides hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Despite the phenomenal increase in oil prices during the era of current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, living standards have declined and unemployment rates have increased in Iran.

In contrast, the era of the moderate former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami saw an improvement in living conditions and flow of capital.

Meanwhile, the fundamentalist ideology of the neo-conservatives in the US contributed to the current global financial crisis, which caused millions of people to lose their life savings or their jobs.

For these reasons, participants in the Al Ittihad Forum stressed the importance of moderation in dealing with social issues, inspired by the call for moderation by divine religions, including Islam.

Therefore, it is extremely important to address the reasons behind extremism, due to its strong association with the issues of stability and economic development. This is because progress in technology and informatics made the smooth movement of capital between countries possible at a record speed.

Religion and society in the Arab world are important issues that need to be given more attention by research centres.

This is because extremism, regardless of its direction, leads to destruction and loss of direction, as well as wasting the precious resources given by God to build life on this Earth, not to destroy it.

The writer is a UAE economic expert.