Abstract
The “state economism” of the 1960s and 1970s failed in many of its aims, but it probably paved the way for a new development process. “Islamic economics” today appears a good alternative. It springs from welldefined economic ethics in the large corpus of Fiqh (Islamic law and ethics), notably: common interest and “Mankind's principality upon Earth”; free private productive property; various hiring and leasing and tenancy agreements without risk; exchange contracts without usury/interest; and zakat or Koranic tax, usually translated as “alms”, interpreted as a social tax system for modern development and social justice. The world network of Islamic banks established since 1975 (without predetermined levels of interest) proves to be well adjusted to the dominant “traditional” world banking system. It permits a certain contribution from the “rentier-states” of the Gulf to the poor and very poor muslim countries. This Islamic doctrine and practice may well be a more motivational symbol than Nasserian (or Shah-Iranian) state economism (cf. Weber and “mahdism” and the long-term economic effects of puritanism).