The Economic System of Islam — Page 118
118 larger country could in fact be more harmful than allowing an indi- vidual to excel because of his special skills. Any in-equality which is created can be redressed with Islam’s fine principles as discussed above. This brings to mind an incident concerning one of India’s lead- ers when several Indian political leaders gathered to deliberate on some a matters. The late Sir Sikander Hayat Khan and Sir Feroze Khan Noon invited me to take part in the meeting, which was held at Simla and was attended by about seventy or eighty leaders from all over the country. One of the leaders was rather annoyed with the size of the assembly, and said in his speech that such important matters could not conveniently be discussed or settled in large gath- erings. He then proposed that only the ‘leaders of leaders’ should meet and let others know of the decision. This is exactly Russia’s position—that the decisions reached by the Three Big should be accepted by all others who lack the right to participate in these meetings. The sole reason for this is that Russia is a military power, while countries like Belgium, France and Holland are less powerful. If the military might is the only reason for giving weight to Russia’s voice, it seems highly unlikely that Russia would be prepared to accept others in its economic programme. A country that accords little value to other countries’ views concerning peace cannot be expected to provide food and clothing to them. Once its industry advances, Russia can be expected to seek ‘mandates’ over its markets instead of equal participation. In short, the Soviet Union does not really stand for ‘death to capitalism’—that is only an illusion in the minds of some people. Its real slogan is: Death to capitalism where individuals own property