Abdülhamit Bilici, Washington, D.C.
Professor Hossein Askari, a prominent economist and academic, has dedicated his career to examining the intersection of Islamic values and governance. Born in Iran, Askari moved to England at a young age for his education and later earned degrees in engineering, business and economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Over the years, he has served as an advisor to the Saudi Ministry of Finance, contributed to international development planning and taught at leading universities, including George Washington University.
In this interview with Turkish Minute, Professor Askari discusses his most widely known work: the Islamicity Index — a pioneering set of tools developed to evaluate how closely countries follow Islamic principles, not through religious rituals but in areas such as governance, justice, economic equity and human dignity.
The indices are structured around four main categories: Economic Islamicity, which measures economic opportunity, poverty alleviation and fair taxation; Legal and Governance Islamicity, assessing the rule of law, accountability and anti-corruption efforts; Human and Political Rights, covering freedom, equality and protection of individual rights; and International Relations, examining a country’s commitment to justice and peace in global affairs.
Strikingly, the highest-scoring countries by these measures are Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden — nations that are not Muslim-majority but rank high in justice, good governance and inclusive social policies. In contrast, most Muslim-majority countries perform significantly worse, exposing a sharp disconnect between Islamic teachings and the realities of governance in the Muslim world.
Askari’s work invites both Muslim societies and Western observers to reconsider long-held assumptions about Islam and its foundational values in public life.
The full interview follows:
Professor Hussein Askari, I am impressed with your studies, books and especially with the Islamicity Index you invented. But before going into that, I’d like you to tell us a little bit about yourself.
I was born in Iran but left for England when I was nine years old because my father died and I was sent by my mother to a boarding school to get discipline and education in 1955. It was a very, very tough time in the British boarding schools, so I learned a lot about discipline. In those days, they used to beat students in boarding schools, so I was beaten a lot, and I used to bleed on my behind, to be very frank with you.
Was it because of your nationality or religion?
Oh no, no. Because I did certain things wrong, but I didn’t speak a word of English. If I put my hands in my pocket, that was a crime. Anyway, so I endured, I did okay, I became tougher. I passed my exams, then I went to another school to get my, basically, high school diploma. I managed to get S levels in two subjects, chemistry and physics, and then I also got an A level in mathematics. I wanted to continue in England, but then there was an issue: I should come to the United States. I had a cousin who was doing a post-doc at MIT in nuclear physics. She told my mother that I should apply to two schools because I wanted to become an engineer, and the two schools she suggested were MIT and Caltech. To be honest, I didn’t know anything about these schools. I had to go to the American Embassy in London to take these exams that I’d never seen before, these multiple-choice exams, SATs. And I took them. I was accepted at MIT, but I was turned down at Caltech. So when people ask me where did you go to school, I say, ‘Well, the only school that accepted me was MIT,’ which is the truth. So I went there and I got an engineering degree. I studied business in graduate school and I also got my Ph.D. in economics, all at MIT. Then I started teaching. I was at Tufts University in Boston for four years. Then I went to the Midwest, to Detroit, to Wayne State just for two years; then I was at the University of Texas at Austin. I was a full professor there, and then I resigned from Texas because I had decided to work with the Ministry of Finance of Saudi Arabia. I used to be personal advisor to the minister. He was a very nice man, and I liked working with him, but then I’m one of these people who goes with my emotions — something happened that I didn’t like, so I left, and then I started teaching at George Washington University beginning in 1982. And I also did teach economics part time for one year at SAIS, which is part of Johns Hopkins in Washington. I stayed at George Washington all that time until I decided to retire about six years ago.
From being unable to speak one word in English to a Ph.D. at MIT, teaching at George Washington, this is great achievement, but one detail is especially interesting. You said you were born in Iran, but you became advisor to the Saudi finance minister. Bearing in mind the hostile relations between the two nations, how was that possible?
When I was teaching at the University of Texas, they gave me a three-year leave of absence because I was asked to join the Saudi team at the IMF. And the reason for that was very simple. In 1978 I had gone to Saudi Arabia just because they had set up a new institution called the Saudi Development Fund, which was set up to help developing countries. And Saudi Arabia, with oil prices having gone up, had money to help these countries out. And the gentleman that I met there, who was the new head of it, Dr. Mahsun Jalal, he was a Ph.D. in economics himself. He was kind of strapped and needed more people to get educated, and he asked me if we would accept some Saudi students, and I was very fortunate because I took the associate dean of the school of business at the University of Texas with me and so we had a nice conversation. Three months later, he called me up again and said, ‘Look, we have been given a temporary two-year chair on the board of directors of the IMF, and I am going to be the executive director for Saudi Arabia, and we have our own seat. Would you come and be my advisor?’ So I met him in Washington and I accepted his offer to go to Saudi Arabia with a leave of absence from the University of Texas. Then, something else happened, when I stopped working for the finance minister. There was a Saudi deputy minister who talked to me in a way I didn’t like, and I’m one of these people, you probably think ‘This guy is mad.’ I just wrote a note and left. I also had resigned from the University of Texas. I had no job, I stayed at home.
The minister, whose name was Mohammad Abal-Khail, called me up, and I told him why I had left, and he said, ‘You must be a child. You don’t do that. You could call me and we would’ve worked it out.’ I said this would never work out. I’m not a Saudi. Later, the gentleman that I mentioned earlier who represented Saudi Arabia, Mahsun Jalal, got a contract directly from the king to put a team together to do all the energy planning for Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia had no energy plans — computer models, everything, for its refineries, for its desalination plants, oil production. And Mahsun Jalal said we would like you to head that and put the team together. So I was going back and forth to Saudi Arabia for about three years, putting this team together, putting together an energy plan for Saudi Arabia. In that process I met many people in Saudi Arabia — ministers and some ruling family members. One person in particular whom I will not name, we became very close friends.
What happened was when Saudi Arabia and Iran did not have diplomatic relations. They broke off diplomatic relations after they had some problems at the Hajj. It was suggested to me by a Saudi that maybe I could help patch things together. The Saudis trusted me, you are absolutely correct. People were mind-boggled, how could that Iranian work that close to Saudi Arabia? They trusted [me]. The Iranians, I haven’t been to Iran in 21 years, they trusted me, too. They didn’t know me, but I came from a family on my mother’s side, my uncle was once the prime minister of Iran. And I never went back to Iran, so this regime that came to power with Ayatollah Khomeini, they said this guy must be a person who loves Iran because he could’ve come back [during the shah’s rule] and become rich, become a minister or something, but he didn’t come back. That’s the way Iran worked then and how it works now, to be very frank with you. It’s all based on connections. I didn’t go back because that’s not what I wanted, so I stayed here. So when they needed somebody to mediate, the Saudis accepted me and the Iranians accepted me, so I was chosen as a mediator, and I met in Saudi Arabia with the Saudi foreign minister for that purpose, Saud Al Faisal [Prince Saud Al Faisal, Saudi foreign minister from 1975 to 2015], and in Iran with a different minister, who is now deceased: Mr. Rafsanjani [Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, speaker of the Iranian parliament from 1980 to 1989 and later president] was designated to be my contact in Iran. They restored diplomatic relations, but I didn’t want to be that involved again. I’m not a politician.
What was the prime minister’s name, your uncle?
He was Manouchehr Eghbal [prime minister of Iran from 1957 to 1960 under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]. Before becoming prime minister, he was minister of justice and minister of health. His daughter was married to the shah’s brother [Mahmoud Reza Pahlavi] for a short time, and then married the shah’s nephew — who was actually shot right after the revolution on the streets of Paris — it was all over the papers — because he was the one person that the revolutionaries in Iran thought, of the Pahlavi dynasty, who mattered, who could do something, so they shot him [Prince Shahriar Shafiq, the shah’s nephew and a naval officer, assassinated in Paris in 1979].
This background gives an idea of your interest and knowledge about the success and failure of Muslim nations that your Islamicity Index tries to highlight. So why did you decide to develop such an index and study Islamic principles regarding economy and governance?
I had a very good student at the University of Texas from Jordan, and he and I, we, got together and I decided that I wanted to look at something because I’d been invited to give a paper at the first Islamic economics conference that was held in Pakistan by General Zia [Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, then-military ruler of Pakistan who came to power in a 1977 coup and promoted Islamization policies], and I was one of the 10 people asked to talk about economics. I wrote the paper with the student of mine who I must say probably knew more about Islam than me. The topic was land ownership in Islam, and we argued that when you sell land, you cannot charge whatever you want, only for the improvements you have made. Because in Islam land was put there by the Almighty, and that is for everyone. As a result of that I got interested in the principles of economy in Islam. And then when I stopped working for Saudi Arabia, I was doing those energy studies and everything. I met a gentleman who was at that time the Iranian executive director at the IMF. His name was Dr. Abbas Mirakhor. He was very, very knowledgeable about Islam. I mean, I would be his student, to be frank with you, and I learned a lot from him, and we wrote many books together. This encouraged me to learn more about Islam and develop the Islamicity Index.
As I understand it, the Islamicity Index aims to measure the performance of Muslim and non-Muslim nations according to Islamic principles like justice, economic development, freedoms, human rights. How do you measure those values? I would also like you to explain why you started such a project.
I know I have only one life on this earth, I want to leave it knowing that I pursued the right things. When I looked around in those days, writing these other books with Dr. Mirakhor, what I saw was the Muslim countries that I visited, many of them; I met many people at the IMF from these Muslim countries. What I saw was all failures in Muslim countries. When I read the reasons, I saw that people usually blame this failure on Islam — the countries that we all praise, they’re successful because they don’t have Islam. So the claim was that Islam is the problem. Islam is against democracy, Islam is against freedom. Many of these countries are dictatorships because that’s what Islam preaches. So my motive was to prove them wrong. It was not Islam; it was the policies of these countries. I wanted to show why these countries were where they were. So I wanted to devise this index to look at why.
According to this index, Denmark, Ireland and Switzerland stand out as more Islamic than all Muslim countries. I think this is a shocking situation. But how can you explain to people in the Muslim world and in the West how Denmark can be more Islamic than Egypt, Turkey, Iran or Saudi Arabia?
When you say ‘more Islamic,’ this is one of the things I get attacked about. I’m glad you asked that question. I’m saying they tend to follow Islamic principles more than Muslim nations do. I don’t call these countries Islamic. I can call myself a Muslim, you can call yourself a Muslim, anyone can call themselves a Muslim, but that’s different than following Islamic principles. And it’s somebody saying, ‘I’m a Muslim, we do this, that and that.’ And you talk about it but you don’t do it. It’s called hypocrisy. In these countries, the rulers in most of these Muslim countries, would like me to give them an index of how many people profess Islam, how many people pray at the mosque, how many people go to Hajj, how many people fast, but to me that’s not Islam. Yes, it’s an important part of Islam, but that’s not all about Islam. It is to do the things that you read in the Quran and doing what Prophet Muhammad said and did. If you carry those things out in your life, those are the hard things. I’m sorry to say, please forgive me, but anyone can do their prayers. People with a little bit of effort can fast. Now even everyone says that’s good for your health anyway. And people with some effort could go to Mecca and Medina. But to me, that is not the heart of Islam. Those are important things, so I think one criticism that you could pose about what I have done in there, and I would accept it, is that Danes don’t pray the way you’re supposed to in Islam. But I would respond to you, you’re absolutely correct, but if I measure those things, then I would be biasing my indices towards Muslim countries because 99 percent of our people are Muslim. Then what’s the point of doing the indices? I wanted to be able to compare it on another level. Those are what I call the mechanical things of Islam. I’m talking about the things that are a little bit harder.
You say, just praying five times a day or fasting will not be enough to be successful as a nation. What are the Islamic principles that Ireland, Sweden and Germany follow and get higher points for in your index, but that the Muslim nations are not following and perform poorly. What are these Islamic principles that, let’s say, makes Ireland more Islamic than any other Muslim country?
This is the heart of what this index is all about. That’s a very critical question. If you were to ask me in the middle of the night, what are the main principles of Islam, this is what would come to mind. It is freedom, because if God wanted to make you or me a perfect person, he could’ve just taken away our freedom. If you believe in the Almighty God, God can do anything. He wanted to give us freedom. We were given freedom, freedom to choose. And human rights. As you know, freedom is an important part of human rights. If you look at the life of the Prophet Muhammad, he was a trader, so I think that in any shape or form we have to have respect for property rights and contracts. Those are sacred. Otherwise, a nation would not prosper if one can come and grab your land or your belongings any day. If this is the case, you would not do the things that you do right now. Because if there is no guarantee for your property, why would you bother or work to own any? In Islam, another very important principle is to have an independent judiciary. Why? Because only with it do you have the rule of law and justice. To me, justice is at the heart of Islam, and that is justice on the level of your human rights: Everyone has to be treated the same.
Some people criticize me, saying I’m too focused on economics. Yes, that’s very, very important. If you read the Quran, my understanding is that poverty eradication is very important. It’s very important to give people an equal chance to succeed, that’s justice. It’s very important that we not have a lavish lifestyle, when people are wallowing in poverty. Lavish lifestyles are unnecessary. I have to pause there before I go on. Just look at Muslim countries. I don’t want to mention how some of the rulers live. Another important principle in Islam is good governance. You asked me why Denmark ranks higher, or Ireland ranks higher than, let’s say, country X, Islamic X. Well, they do those things better than those Muslim countries. People in Muslim countries may pray hundred times a day, but that’s a different measure. I’m not trying to measure that. I’m trying to measure something else.
You say they may pray every minute of the day, but if they don’t have justice, if they don’t have freedom, if they don’t have human rights, then they can’t beat Denmark or Ireland?
That’s right.
You say, Professor, that you wanted with this index to tell Muslims that you are not really Muslim and to the Western world or to the rest of the world that Islam is not that bad. So this, I think, a good summary of your purpose. What is the result? How well do you think you achieved the goal of telling Muslims that they’re not really Muslim, and the Western world — where there is Islamophobia and lots of negative perceptions about Muslims — that Islam is not that bad. Is there any Muslim leader at the political or social level who reached out to you and said you had a very interesting project, telling us Ireland is more Islamic than, let’s say, Turkey. So please help us beat Ireland. Did you have any such contacts?
When one searches for successful countries, most people would look at northern Europe, not even the United States or Britain. Northern Europe has pretty successful countries. People seem happier. Now, I don’t agree with some of the things that they do, but most people look at those countries and say they’re pretty successful. If you look at, I’m sorry to say, please forgive me, let’s pick Yemen, because you’re not from Yemen nor am I. It’s not that successful. I mean, I think most people would agree with that. So the whole idea that this shows, you’re absolutely correct, is that the countries that follow Islamic principles more seem to be seen as very successful in the eyes of the world, that’s all I’m saying. It shows you, and that was one of the things I wanted to prove, don’t blame Islam. Don’t blame Islam, blame yourselves. And I think people have to look inside, look in the mirror in Muslim countries and blame themselves. Of course they can also blame it on what the West has done to them, but that’s a different issue.
The last part of my question was whether anyone from the Muslim world reached out to you to congratulate you or to get advice.
Well, some peripheral things. Several years ago, a gentleman who was the president of Iran did say at a meeting that this index is a useful thing to monitor. And then there was a tiny bit of interest from a person who I respect, by the way — I don’t know what you feel — because we became friends a little bit when he was in Washington, D.C. It was Anwar Ibrahim, who is now the prime minister of Malaysia. He knows a lot of about Islam. He was interested in this.
I beg you to understand one thing, that none of these leaders would be interested in reaching out because this project condemns them, I mean, let me just give one example: Who does oil and gas belong to in a Muslim country? It’s clearcut, and no one has debated me on this because I’ve written about it in many places. Depletable resources belong to the people of that country, not to a family or person. And to all future generations of that country. They need to be managed, depleted in a way that they provide the same benefit to the current and future generations of that nation. The only criticism I’ve had on this one, which is okay, someone said, ‘Well you know the Ummah, the whole Islamic community, is one, so all that oil and gas should belong to all Muslim countries.’ I said you’re being too generous. I don’t think that’s in the cards because everybody then has got to agree to share whatever they’ve got.
Now having said that, what does that imply? That implies that oil and gas do not belong to the rulers, and it’s not to be used in a lavish way, in a bad way, bribes, giving planes to foreign leaders, and it should not be used for buying armaments and inciting wars as opposed to defensive things. If this is the case, what incentive does a ruler of any of these countries have to contact me or to follow something that’s going to show their deficiencies? All these rulers are very, very devout in the sense that they profess Islam. They would never say, ‘Oh, we don’t believe in Islam because the average person who has very little believes in Islam.’
I mean, when I grew up, my nanny, the lady who raised me as a child, was devoted. My grandmother was devoted. They’re a different generation than what you see now. That’s what I remember. And that could be age again. I could remember the wrong things, but I think that rulers and governments have no interest. And one last part of this and then I’d like to add something later, but one university did reach out to me that wanted to bring the program to the university, a very well known university.
In the West?
Yes, in the West. It’s called Wellesley College, in Massachusetts. And the president wrote to me and was interested, but I think probably people later convinced him that that’s not a good idea. I think it’s, you know, you go out on a limb, you don’t want to alienate people. I mean, look at American universities. I’m sure you’re aware.
Are you disappointed with the lack of interest both in the Muslim world and the West? Will you continue updating the index?
Some Irish newspapers gave it publicity. After the mosque attack in New Zealand, they showed some interest. I also got a call from the BBC. The reporter who called me to talk before the interview was, in my opinion, very rude in the sense that I had an agenda. I have no agenda. I think I’m an open book with you. You can check everything. I don’t get upset with any questions, but when somebody right upfront accused me of having an agenda, I said, ‘I don’t want to talk to you. Goodbye.’
We are doing some data refinements in the index. I don’t think that there will be major changes at the top ranks, but maybe in the middle. We hope to have it ready in late June to mid-July.
Do you still expect a Muslim leader from a country like Turkey, Iran or Saudi Arabia to start having those Islamic principles applied? And what is your future projection of the Muslim world?
That’s a very complicated question, but I’m always hopeful. I was hoping two countries might adopt the spirit of this index and help publicize it: Turkey and Malaysia.
Let’s go first with Turkey. In the first 10 years of the current Turkish government, I was hopeful that Turkey would be a successful Muslim country in its bid to join the European Union. I don’t know if you were excited, too, in those years. Then it failed and turned into a new Middle Eastern-type autocracy.
When we started the index in 2013, I was hopeful for the transformation of those two countries. Because I never, ever thought that the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf would embrace the Islamic principles I underlined. It would mean their losing everything like palaces and the lavish lifestyle they have. A country in a desperate situation needs to grab on to something to convince people that we’re going to reform. I looked around and saw Turkey as a candidate. I had some conversations with a gentleman who has faded in Turkey but was very, very close to Mr. Erdogan. One of my students used to warn me about my high hopes with Erdogan, and he said I didn’t know what I was talking about. I really thought that Turkey could be the country that could really reform and show Muslim countries the way. I really did. So I’m willing to take anyone who says, ‘You’re a naïve guy,’ as my student used to tell me. And he was right and I was wrong. What can I say? I really thought Turkey would be the country, but then as things have turned out, I don’t think that Turkey is that country anymore.
What happened, why did Turkey disappoint you?
Well, I think it’s the authoritarianism as we talked about earlier. One of the main principles of Islam to me is freedom and human rights. People should choose their ruler. And the form of government. I firmly believe in that. I think Turkey just drifted away from that, and so I was naïve. I thought there was a possibility.
Yes, this is a sad story. Turkey was seen as a model of Muslim democracy. It was a source of hope that is lost.
Exactly.
Why Malaysia, and how was its performance?
I still have some faith in Anwar Ibrahim. I think he’s done more for teaching Islamic economics and finance to train people at least to understand that stuff, more than any country that I know. The Central Bank of Malaysia has tried to implement some of the principles that Islam preaches. When I look at Malaysia and its statistics, I think there is still hope. But Malaysia is currently caught between the United States and China. I don’t know what will happen. It’s really power politics, it is really impacting a lot of what happens in all Muslim countries. In 2022 Malaysia ranked 43rd, and with that score it was the top Muslim country in regard to following Islamic principles. It was first, but then it was replaced at one point by Qatar. So it goes back and forth, but Malaysia has always been up there. I almost have tears in my eyes when I see these countries have not done better. I tell my children that human greed is something you cannot control. I think this happens to politicians of all sorts and the people around them. They love flattery and they do whatever they need to do to stay in power.
In the 2022 index, Denmark was the top, the first country in terms of applying Islamic principles, Ireland second, Netherlands third, while Turkey ranked 100th. In the first year of the index in 2015, Turkey was ranked 65th. Isn’t it strange that Turkey’s rank got worse in the Islamicity Index despite more emphasis on Islam under Erdoğan’s rule?
What you ask is difficult to answer in a superficial way. But at a broad level, one can clearly see that the reasons for Turkey’s decline are many. The system has deteriorated in its legal and governance structure, in its respect for human and political rights and in its international relations. But this decline has little to nothing to do with Islam. It reveals that the government of Turkey says it has embraced Islamic teachings, but in reality it has done the opposite.
The stagnation of the Muslim world is not a recent thing, it has a history of a couple of centuries. Why do you think Muslims, the Muslim world or the Muslim nations, failed after a very successful period in the 9th, 10th centuries?
That is the gazillion-dollar question that people try to address. It’d be very arrogant of me to try to answer your question. Let me just give you some thoughts. For me, it is because of imperial powers’ manipulation. I think there has not been a leader in the Muslim world that has believed in these basic principles, not corrupted by material things, by foreign powers. by a desire to hang on to power forever and set an example for the rest. It is also the problem of all Muslims in these countries. They are not willing to stand up. They’re scared. They don’t stand up to hold the rulers accountable. I remember when I was 16 years old, my uncle in Iran wanted me to go and meet the shah. And my uncle was a very, very nice, honest person. Most people have said he was one of the few politicians who you could say was honest. And when he died, he didn’t have anything. He was a very decent person. He wanted to take me to the shah of Iran to meet him, just to be introduced. He told me, ‘Hussein, when we go to visit his imperial majesty, you have to kiss his hand.’ And I said to my uncle, ‘I’m sorry I can’t do that. I’m happy to kiss my mother’s hand, my grandmother’s hand. I don’t have a father, but I’m not going to kiss a ruler’s hand, unless I know that person lives up to certain things that I believe in, and I don’t think any of the rulers that I see around the world, in the Muslim world, do what I think they should be doing.’ I said, ‘No, I can’t do it,’ and I did not go.
You mean Muslims by their behavior and character, by their lack of bravery, deserve the kind of situation they are in today?
I think that’s what it is. We like to blame others, and as I said Muslims like to blame it on other things like foreign powers, but it is shameful for all Muslims that they don’t want to change. I’ll give you one example — the country where I was born, Iran. I love and adore that country, the simple folks, but not the way it was always being run. When the shah was in power, people used to kiss his hand. Guess what happened when the shah fell? They kissed the next person’s hand.
So Muslims seem to face a deeper issue beyond just political systems or leadership — a challenge rooted in character, ethics and education. What’s puzzling is that many of them claim to strictly follow the Prophet Muhammad, who was humble, ethical, generous and accepting of other faiths. So why is there such a disconnect between his example and the way many Muslims live or lead today?
You’re right. As you say, he transformed a culture, a nation where they were worshiping idols, they were dirty. He was very charismatic with a strong character. Despite his power, he was humble and respected other faiths. How kind he was to Jews, he protected them. We don’t see anyone like that anymore. I really believe if such a person were to emerge in a country — a Muslim, charismatic, young, unselfish, a good man — I think there is room for such a person. But I’m sorry to be such a pessimist, I don’t think people would want such a person. The powers that be, they would get rid of him very quickly, but I think that that’s what we need.
How the Islamicity Index was born
The inspiration for the Islamicity Index originated from a lecture by Professor Abbas Mirakhor in a seminar led by Professor Hossein Askari around the year 2000. Askari was deeply moved by the vision of Islam presented by Professor Mirakhor, which emphasized justice, ethics and good governance. Motivated by this perspective, Askari began developing key indicators based on core Islamic teachings. He then invited his colleague, Professor Sheherazade Rehman, to help collect data and calculate index values for Muslim countries.
Soon after, Askari realized that the findings would be more meaningful if the same methodology were applied to non-Muslim countries, allowing for a broader comparison. This led to the publication of two foundational articles — “Economic Islamicity Index” and “How Islamic Are Islamic Countries?” — in the Global Economy Journal in 2010. Both authors were then faculty members at George Washington University.
Following Professor Rehman’s departure from the project, Askari continued the work with Dr. Liza Mydin from Malaysia and Hossein Mohammadkhan from Washington, D.C. Together, they refined the index and co-authored a book offering a deeper explanation of its framework. To support their efforts, they established a tax-exempt foundation registered in the US state of Maryland.
For over a decade, Hossein Mohammadkhan has single-handedly managed the research, which aims to assess whether member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) implement policies aligned with Islamic values. The study has since evolved into a comprehensive annual index that evaluates how closely countries — Muslim and non-Muslim alike — adhere to key Islamic principles in areas such as governance, economics, freedom, human rights, social justice and international relations.
The most recent Islamicity Index was published in 2022, ranking Denmark, Ireland and the Netherlands as the top three countries. In contrast, several Muslim-majority nations ranked significantly lower—Saudi Arabia at 90th, Turkey at 100th and Iran at 138th. The next update to the index is expected to be released by mid-July of this year.