Badawi lecture

I saw Abdullah Badawi (PM Malaysia) speak at IISS today. Sensible chap. Here are a few of his pertinent points.

Tension between Islam and west can be diffused/isolated by:
- Resolving iconic grievances like Israel-Palestine and Iraq.
- Focusing on the economic development of Islamic countries (particularly human capital).
- Learning more about Islam, and its internal divisions.

He added that:
- Islam is not incompatible with democracy and economic development/ modernity.
- Radical islam feeds off perceived exclusion, ignorance, poverty and trans-national grievances.
- Muslim majority countries must respect and treat equally non-muslim minorities.
- Muslim minorities in non-muslim countries should obey the laws of their country (ie: Islam does not necessarily trump western democracy).
- He ended by calling for a jihad on economic development, listing areas where muslim countries in the OIC can cooperate to encourage mutual development.

On the whole an interesting presentation.