Abdülhamit Bilici, Washington, D.C.
Turkey has dropped to 109th place out of 149 countries in the 2024 Islamicity Index, deepening a decade-long decline in governance, justice and economic management as measured by core Islamic values.
The index, regularly published by the US-based Islamicity Foundation since 2015, is 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. It applies equally to Muslim-majority and non-Muslim nations.
In 2015 Turkey ranked 65th in the same index. It had slipped to 100th by 2022 and its continued fall in the 2024 report confirms a sustained erosion in institutional quality and societal equity. Once hailed as a model for reform in the Muslim world, Turkey now trails far behind Muslim-majority countries such as Malaysia, which remains the highest-ranked Muslim-majority country at 41st.

Speaking to Turkish Minute, Professor Hossein Askari, one of the founders of the Islamicity Index and a prominent economist, expressed deep disappointment over Turkey’s regression.
“If one had asked me ten years ago which countries in the Muslim world could serve as models for economic and democratic reform, I would have said Turkey and Malaysia without hesitation. Unfortunately, Turkey has become a major disappointment. Today, I would place Indonesia alongside Malaysia,” he said.
Indonesia, currently ranked 56th, has steadily improved its standing by strengthening democratic norms and economic reforms. Albania, at 44th, and Kazakhstan, at 68th, have also made relative progress. In contrast, Turkey’s regression stands out among Muslim-majority countries.
Over the past several years Turkey has been suffering from a deteriorating human rights record and an ailing economy with a skyrocketing cost of living and high inflation that currently stands at around 35 percent.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been ruling Turkey as a single-party government since 2002, is criticized for mishandling the economy, emptying the state’s coffers and establishing one-man rule in the country where dissent is suppressed and opponents are jailed on politically motivated charges, especially after a failed coup in July 2016.
The Islamicity Index also shows setbacks in other countries. The United States dropped from 29th to 39th place. Israel saw a sharp fall from 27th to 57th, while Saudi Arabia declined from 90th to 100th. Tunisia, once considered a success story after the Arab Spring, now ranks 88th. Askari warned that these shifts reflect not only regional trends but a global retreat from accountable governance.
Askari also said both the US and Israel declined in the rankings due to issues related to their economies, democratic standards and confrontational foreign policies. More broadly, he warned that globally, authoritarian tendencies are rising, economic protectionism is growing and international relations are increasingly straying from rule-based systems toward lawlessness.
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.
Ireland, which came in first, is followed by Iceland, New Zealand, Denmark and the Netherlands in the 2024 Islamicity Index. In the previous index dated 2022, Denmark was ranked first, followed by Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Iceland.
The worst performing countries in the 2024 index are Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Chad and Democratic Republic of Congo. They were also the worst performers in the 2022 index.
“We believe more than ever that these indices are a useful instrument to begin and sustain a program of much-needed reform in Muslim countries by highlighting areas of success, failure and thus reform,” the authors of the index said.
In a recent interview with Turkish Minute, Professor Askari had explained the rationale behind developing this index, commented on the rankings of Muslim-majority countries and others and talked about the importance of a correct understanding of Islam’s role in the underdevelopment of Muslim-majority nations.