Islam's Response to Contemporary Issues — Page 187
Economic Peace 187 Another important factor should also be brought to the focus of one’s attention. When industry and the national economy reach choking point, poorer and less developed countries face ever- increasing danger of suffering from the fallout of the explosive situation of the developed and advanced countries. It begins with greater urgency by political leaders of the industrialised countries to sell more goods in the markets to save industry from slowing down and to maintain the standard of living of its people. The problems they face are twofold: 1) The people are accustomed to modern comforts; and, 2) For the sake of its own survival, industry continues to excite them with new inventions and devices, which bring comfort and pleasure to their homes. No political government can survive the pressure of a public, which continues to demand higher living standards. The economy must be kept afloat at whatever cost possible. Obviously the Third World countries have to be bled more than before for the maintenance of artificially high standards of life in the advanced countries. What about the new challenge of the reshaping economies of the USSR and Eastern Europe and what about the growing need for foreign markets by the newly emerging capitalist states of the erstwhile communist world? Again, what about the havoc, which the Western media is already playing with the desires and ambitions of the poor and almost destitute common people of socialist and Third World countries? All these factors put together will certainly not change the face of the earth for the better.