WORLD DEBT LECTURE
World Authority on Islamic Finance calls for action on the global debt crises: Professor Khurshid Ahmad delivers World Debt Day Lecture
25/05/07

On 15th May 2007, Islamic Relief UK in conjunction with the Jubilee Debt Campaign and the University of Birmingham held a vitally important event. Professor Khurshid Ahmad, Chairman of the Institute of Policy Studies in Pakistan and of the Islamic Institute in Leicester was invited to deliver this years World Debt Day Lecture.

	Professor Ahmad: "This means that if enough people come together and declare in one voice that enough is enough and that the world needs change, then change can be brought about! " Previous article: World Debt Lecture
	Lecture notes :

Global Debt "Crises", not "Crisis"
At the event, Professor Ahmad explained the dire situation of a developing world currently owing a total of $3.242 trillion to the richest countries of the world. Not only this, he showed that since 1996, 23 of the worlds poorest countries are now paying more to service their global debt than they were then.

The Barber Institute of Fine Arts Birmingham University

Also highlighted by Professor Ahmad was an issue that is often lost in the discussion of global debt; that being the debt crisis in the developed world. In 1963 for example, household debt in the United Kingdom was £9 billion; a figure that by 1997 had increased to £780 billion. This amount has since broken through the £1 trillion mark!

‘Affluenza’ – The causes of these crises
The problem is starkly highlighted in the following statistic: that in 2006, the average debt for every UK adult was £25,200 – more than the average income.

Professor Ahmad demonstrated that the richest one percent of the world earn as much as the bottom 57%. He also showed how the incomes of 25 million people in the US, are equal to the total income of 2 billion of the worlds poorest people; that is that 25 million people at the top earn the same amount as a third of the world!

It would, according to many, therefore not be a wholly inappropriate question to ask why half of the world’s population is forced to live on less than $2 a day (£1); with a billion having to live on only $1 a day (50p).

Why, Professor Ahmad asked, must one fifth of the world suffer the agony of a living death?

Islamic Solutions to Global Problems
The final section of Professor Ahmad’s lecture dealt with applying Islamic principles to solve the world’s problems; mechanisms promoting morality and social consciousness.

The abolition of usury/interest
The abolition of usury and interest, a requirement of all of the three major world religions, was presented as a necessary first step towards rectifying decades of inequity. The Holy Qur’an says:

The abolition of interest is only one of a whole measure of steps needed over the long term which, according to Professor Ahmad, would start to redress the balance.

Risk-sharing
If a venture succeeds, the bank gets its money back; but if a venture fails, the business person loses everything yet the bank still gets its money back!

This is a vision of the unjust reality of how the banking system works, with banks maintaining no responsibility to ensure that they lend responsibly. The Islamic system as Professor Ahmad explained was much more just.

If the lender lends money for a successful venture, they would get their money back. If the venture fails however, they would lose part or potentially all of the money lent.

Such a system is vital in bringing back justice in lending; and would ensure that moneylenders have an inherent interest in not loaning money to those who could not reasonably pay it back.

New Economic World Order
The solution needs, according to Professor Ahmad, a new comprehensive approach and broad-based policy package; nothing less than a new economic world order.

As a declared optimist however, Professor Khurshid was confident that it could be achieved. If correct, it would resolve a grave injustice upon some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people.

Countervailing power of the people
Professor Ahmad also confidently asserted that if united under this common cause, the people could have as much power to effect change as the politicians. This means that if enough people come together and declare in one voice that enough is enough and that the world needs change, then change can be brought about!

One such event will be taking place on Saturday 2nd June in London, further information regarding which can be found on www.yourvoiceagainstpoverty.org.uk

For further information, please contact Hamayoon Sultan, Development Education Co-ordinator, Islamic Relief, on 0121 380 2380.