Saturday, March 10, 2012

The Great Thing About Sharia and Socialism Is That They're So Simpatico

A Muslima regales onislam readers with her recent trip to Scandanavia, which she touts as a marvel of engineered "social justice":
One of the first things that caught my attention in Scandinavia is how you couldn't tell the social level of people you met on the street. Almost everyone had the same standard of decency in their appearance. I was told that the state ensures that everyone had the minimum monthly income required to give them and their families a decent look and a decent life. This made me think of the amazing social justice system of Umar ibn Abdel Aziz, when there were no more poor Muslims left to give charity to. Why did it phase out? How come we don't see it in effect today?
It's true that citizens pay high taxes, but they're returned to them in the form of excellent services and welfare support, so they have a functioning system, infrastructure, and public services like transportation, healthcare, and education, mostly for free. I believe that is what a Muslim state should be like. Its main responsibility should be to provide a stable and decent living for all the citizens equally through wise management of the country's resources for the benefit of all.
Moreover, although Scandinavians are very well-off, I didn't see anyone flaunting their wealth the way we see in other countries. There seemed to be a social code that made people want to keep a low profile in public and blend in with the crowds without standing out too much. Isn't this what great men like Umar ibn Al Khattab taught Muslims? Not to show off or brag about looks and possessions?
It just goes to show, I guess: one person's "social justice" utopia is another person's chilling dystopian vision replete with unsustainable statism, submission, anti-Capitalism and societal uniformity.

1 comment:

Carlos Perera said...

Thomas Sowell likes to cite an incident involving Milton Friedman, the great monetary economist and champion of free enterprise: He was once being harangued by a soft-socialist Swedish economist who kept on citing Swedish social statistics to prove the superiority of the Swedish welfare state to American capitalism. The fellow thought he had clinched the argument by saying, "In Scandinavia we have no poverty." Milton Friedman, affecting his wry smile, replied, "That's interesting, because in America among Scandinavians, we have no poverty either."

Alas, as Scandinavia becomes more . . . vibrantly multicultural, with fewer actual Scandinavians and more People of the Religion of Peace, I think we shall see just how the Swedish model differs from fantasy shariah. (Though the Swedes of Minnesota shall no doubt continue to do well . . . at least until the Somalis take over the place.)