Islamic currency

By Rania Islam, Banani, Dhaka
25 September 2005, 18:00 PM
This is in response to the letter by Mr. A Mawaz on Sept. 21 about having an "Islamic currency" to combat the US dollar and EURO. This is a great idea in concept, but in practice it will never happen for the following reasons: With the snobbery and prejudice amongst the different races that make up the Islamic race, a unified currency would mean that someone would be exploited or given an unfair deal. For example, the Arabs perhaps think of Pakistanis as an inferior race that doesn't speak Arabic, and the Pakistanis made it clear from our war of independence that they think of Bangladeshis as less than human. There is no unity among the Islamic nations, as you correctly pointed out. Look at when the tsunami hit and deeply affected the largely Islamic Indonesia; the Arab nations gave a pathetic amount of aid (Saudi's gave $10m US, UAE gave $2m, Germany by contrast, gave $600m), where was the brotherhood in the time of need? It seems that we are "fair weather" friends and your true brothers are those that share your pain and will help you in your time of need without using your disasters as an opportunity to give with one hand and steal with the other. Bangladesh needs to forget these sentimental notions of a big Islamic brotherhood and concentrate on building itself up economically through foreign investment albeit it from India, Japan, the USA or Europe. The Arabs have already invested $7 trillion in the US; Islamic unification is clearly not their priority.