Ummah Trading System

I again came across one of the concepts which just does my head in. The association of strange things with religion. This shows up in many manifestations. Like the idea that the jews are behind everything. Or that the Jews are extra-special because they have got a huge number of nobel prizes. Or that Hinduism had something to do with the decades long low economic growth rate in India (thank you, Mr. Mahalanobis for that gem). And now we see a post by Yahya Brit bemoaning about the fact that intra OIC trade was pathetic.

Trade happens because somebody wants to buy something and somebody has something to sell. Governments, as is their wont, put in barriers to trade. So if the trade between 2 countries is not high enough, the reason (ceretis paribus) is that nobody wants/can buy things, nobody has things to sell or there are government barriers such as not purchasing olives and oranges from Israel (But merrily using Israeli patented medical equipment - lets not go there, never you mind)

And these barriers are not Islamic, they are stupid economics (proving the point that stupidity is religion independent - trade barriers have been put up by Hindu, Christian, Shinto, and and and... countries). So the fact that the OIC countries are not trading between them is not due to the common religion or the common ummah but because they are either not able to purchase stuff, or make stuff which people want to buy or have stupid barriers.

If this basic logical and economics argument does not come across properly, then think about the flip side of the argument, Mr. Brit. The only thing which is common across these OIC countries is the fact that they have the same religion. Now if you are really interested to link economics and trade with religion, then the fact that the trade is low becomes the fault of the religion or the followers or both. Now you see how strange this position is?

No Sir, stick to basics, transparency, education, productivity, venture capital, low tariff barriers, democracy, rule of law, etc. etc. and you will see trade increase :)

Happy trading :)