Abstract—The subject of relationship between religion and
economy raises many issues. It touches the originality of
religion and economy and their nature of relationship including
their independence and dependence. Western scholarship on
the subject has useful insights for the Muslim policy makers on
religion based economy. This research undertakes Marx and
Weber’s thought on the subject and relates the issue with the
current reality in industrialized countries such as Singapore.
The findings show that Marx is a reductionist and Weber’s
thesis highlights the independent role of religion in fostering
economy although he remains pessimistic regarding its
religiosity. The more plausible view is that though religion is an
independent variable, yet there is interdependence between
religion and economy. The economical modalities influence
religious life in many ways. This challenge calls Muslim policy
makers for a continuous intellectual effort in making creative
contributions in making religion based economy possible.
Index Terms—Economy, religion, Islam, Marx, Weber,
Singapore.
Mohammad Manzoor Malik is with the Department of Fundamental and
Inter-Disciplinary Studies, Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and
Human Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia (e-mail:
philomalik@iium.edu.my).
[PDF]
Cite: Mohammad Manzoor Malik, " Western Intellectual Insights for Muslim Policy Makers on
Religion Based Economy," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity vol. 5, no. 10, pp. 879-886, 2015.