Islamic Politics and Culture - Essay Example

The main internal and external issues to be explored or followed by the Muslim societies to bring programmatic changes are: low status of women, low development investment, lack of secular education, emergence of political Islam and religious fundamentalism. Most of the Muslim societies are male dominated and this limits the upward mobility of the women in these societies. For instance, most of the Muslim societies in the Middle East are male dominated. This limits the women from entering the public domain and confines them within their private domain or family.

This is an important problem to be solved because it is totally against individual freedom and liberty. The problem of low status of women is most critical in Islamic Republics like Iran. The Islamic societies show reluctance towards foreign investment and it curbs the development of these societies. To be specific, the Islamic societies, especially the Middle Eastern nations, consider that foreign investment may lead to the influence of Western culture and lifestyle over Islamic way of life.

Besides, stories about the influence of extremism over the Muslim societies create much tension among the foreign investors. The multinational corporations are not ready to invest in the Muslim societies. This leads to low development investment and underdevelopment. The Muslim societies consider religious education helps an individual to live according to the Islamic way of life. Within this context, more importance is given to religious education and it leads to the negative attitude towards secular education.

One can see that secular education is helpful to have a broader outlook of the world. On the other side, education based upon a specific religion hinders the development of an individual. So, lack of secular education leads the Muslim societies to consider that other religions are their enemies. The emergence of political Islam is another issue to be