The Islamicity Foundation’s Fourth Annual Report on the Islamicity Indices Program
August 2020
1. Executive Summary
The median overall Islamicity score improved for all countries in 2020. The 2020 Islamicity indices again show New Zealand to be the country that best reflects Islamic teachings, values, and institutions in the world. Iceland, Sweden Netherlands, and Norway complete the top five list of countries that best follow the precepts of Islam. The proper performance of these countries in the time of Covid-19 outbreak asserts the importance of well-established institutions at the time of an unprecedented pandemic outbreak. Globally, the economic (EI) and human and political rights (HPRI) performance of the 151 countries increased slightly in 2020. However, there were declines in legal and governance (LGI) and international relations (IRI) indices.
The practices of Muslim-majority countries underperformed in reflecting the teachings of the Holy Qur’an and hadiths. Even so, they performed slightly better in 2020 than they did in 2019, with an improvement of 1.2% in the median overall Islamicity index. It is noted that there is no Muslim country amongst the list of top forty countries, Malaysia and United Arab Emirates achieved the rank of 43 and 47 respectively. However, Malaysia, UAE, and Qatar were in the list of top forty (40) countries of OI Index in 2019. In 2020, Muslim countries performed better in economic and human and political rights indices relative to 2019 even with the outbreak of Covid -19. They underperformed in legal and international relation indices reversing their improvement in 2019.
To build strong institutions necessary for improving their governance practices and socioeconomic progress, Muslim countries should more closely follow the precepts of Islam and teachings of Qur’an and hadiths. Only when these countries adopt effective institutions that embody freedom and justice and are economically progressive, respective of human and political rights and in harmony with the international community, will they truly internalize and execute Islamic standards of governance.