Business zakat compliance in Algeria: an ethical perspective

Purpose This research aims to investigate the influence of political instability, trust and knowledge on the zakat compliance behaviour of Algerian business owners. Based on the lenses of the ethical theory mainly and by reference to Zakat Core Principles (that originally inspired from the Basel Core Principles), the paper aims to provide an understanding of how these factors affect zakat compliance in the Algerian context from an ethical perspective. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional research design was applied. Using self-administered questionnaires, a total of 575 business owners in Algeria participated in this study. The hypothesised model was tested by using the partial least squares structural equation model. Findings The study results support that the ethical approach can explain zakat compliance among Algerian business owners. Specifically, the results revealed that political instability, zakat knowledge and trust significantly influence zakat compliance. Practical implications The results offer meaningful insights for the zakat institutions in Muslim societies to enable them to formulate zakat collection policies, assess the level of societal trust in the zakat authority, evaluate the influence of political instability on Muslim entrepreneurs’ zakat compliance and strengthen the entrepreneurs’ zakat knowledge on the exigency of paying zakat to the authority. Originality/value This study breaks new ground by exploring the effects of political instability, zakat knowledge and trust on zakat payers’ compliance ethical decisions in developing countries such as Algeria. More significantly, this research contributes to the existing literature of the ethical theory specifically by investigating the effect of political instability on zakat compliance among Algerian business owners.

The Impact of Religion and Culture on the Supremacy of the Constitution in Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s social composition demonstrates it to be a pluralist, multi-cultural, multi-lingual, and multi-ethnic country. The life and behaviour of its citizens are, for example, governed by more than one source of law, namely those of Islam and Afghan culture. In light of this, the current article attempts to, firstly, explain Islam as a source of law in Afghanistan and its supremacy over that country’s constitution and then, secondly, apply the same logic to culture as rooted in Afghan tribal and ethnic traditions. While many cultural traditions exist in Afghanistan, this article focuses solely on the constitutionally recognised Loya Jirga (Great Assembly). Finally, the study suggests applicable solutions for maintaining the authority of the constitution in the presence of Islam and Afghan custom. This, it is hoped, will help Afghanistan escape its ongoing political instability and avoid the relentless downfall of governments.

DOES CORRUPTION SAND THE WHEELS OF FINANCIAL SECTOR DEVELOPMENT? EVIDENCE FROM GLOBAL PANEL DATA

This study examines the effects of corruption and political instability and violence on the financial sector development. We estimate the impact for a panel of countries classified by income groups and regulatory quality. The study considers the period from 1996 to 2015 for analysis. The empirical models of this study test the linear as well as nonlinear relationships between corruption and financial sector development. Our analysis utilizes a dynamic panel data model and takes care of the potential endogeneity problem in estimation. The results show that corruption has a negative effect on financial sector development for all as well as different income-group countries. Our results further show that the effects of corruption are nonlinear in nature and indicate that corruption is more financial development-reducing when its level is very high. We also test the joint effect of corruption and political instability and violence on financial development. It largely shows that their combined effect is positive, implying that widespread corruption can positively affect financial development if a country is suffering from an unstable political institution.

THE CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CAUSES OF POLITICAL INSTABILITY IN PAKISTAN FROM 1988 TO 1999 (SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SINDH PROVINCE)

This research article’s primary goal is to determine the triggers and implications of Pakistan’s political instability and its effects on the political situation of Sindh during the democratic decade from 1988 to 1999. Despite abundant natural resources, Pakistan is one of the only countries where political unrest has severely hampered the social and political development of the country. So, this paper aims to understand the leading factors of political instability that weakened the country’s political growth and led the nation in general and Sindh province, in particular, to suffer social and ethnic problems in society. To understand the issue deeply, the researcher used unstructured Interviews as a research tool with law-makers, academicians, and political scientists. However, many interviewees accepted that the lack of enthusiastic leadership, the Role of the weak judiciary, the passive role of civil bureaucracy, and political ethnicity had been the leading factors for political and social unrest. Thus, the study’s findings would help the law-makers and academicians of different colleges and universities to design their policies and curriculum. Additionally, this paper would help various nationalists and political parties of Sindh province to comprehend the genuine reasons for unrest in the area from 1988 to 1999. Key Words: Political instability, Weak Judiciary, Political ethnicity, Foreign interference, Role of civil bureaucracy

Maldives faces heightened political instability

Significance Yameen, who lost power in 2018, was sentenced to five years in jail for money laundering in 2019. The opposition Progressive Congress Coalition (PCC), which comprises two Yameen-centric parties, has recently led protests over Indian influence in the Maldives. Impacts The election commission and judiciary will maintain their independence. China will not back Yameen publicly but will see the re-energising of the opposition as an opportunity to regain influence lost since 2018. Yameen will try, probably in vain, to win over politicians whom he alienated during his presidency.

Dynamic Dimensions of Radicalization and Violent Extremism in Sabah, Malaysia

Malaysia offers a unique lens to evaluate the changing dynamics of radicalization and extremism in Southeast Asia, as the threat of both home-grown and external extremism grows. The country’s geographic location, bordering multiple active centers of violent extremism (the southern Philippines, southern Thailand, and Indonesia), makes it particularly vulnerable to further threats from violent extremism and terrorism, as regional and local violent extremist organizations (VEOs) exploit Malaysian geohistorical contexts and growing grievances related to social and political instability. Threats and risks of violent extremism are especially pronounced and manifest with severe consequences in the Malaysian state of Sabah. This policy note advances a granular review of the dynamics underlying radicalization risk in Sabah, Malaysia, in order to extrapolate an analysis of emerging areas of threat and risk of violent extremism facing Southeast Asia. It offers an opportunity to better understand current and future threats and risks of violent extremism facing Southeast Asia and identifies important trends and recommendations for policymakers and practitioners in mitigating the spread of violent extremism and radicalization to violence in Sabah. The policy note also considers how building local preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) capacity can mitigate Malaysia’s role as a staging area, transit hub, and conduit for the transportation of weapons, operatives, finances, and supporters to other regional and global terrorist organizations.

ممارسات متنوعة في قياس عامل الإنتاجية الكلية للعراق: دراسة تحليلية للمدة (1970-2017)

The index of the total productivity factor is one of the most important measures expressing the efficiency of resource use, and an important indicator of technological development among the countries of the world. His great contribution to economic growth reveals his ability to lead economic growth. The strong negative changes taking place in the total factor productivity of the country confirm a series of successive events such as the decline in economic growth (negative growth), for example the decline in total productivity during the Great Depression of 1929, and the slowdown in total productivity in the United States of America in the seventies. On the other hand, achieving distinct real economic growth means improved efficiency and performance and a clear rise in the efficiency of resource utilization accompanied by a distinctive technological development for the country concerned, as has happened in China for the past two decades. It was revealed to us by measuring the growth in the total productivity factor of Iraq in the long term, and after using five diverse productivity functions through which (calculating economic growth) was applied, and using three methods (formulas) for each of the five functions and they are; (Solo remainder, regression, and Ferguson's dummy variable method for instability), we have fifteen time series of TFP growth. It has become clear that the calculation of the total productivity factor suffers from a (technological illusion), and there is no technological development in Iraq for the period (1979-2003), at the very least, as "it became clear to us that there is a clear weakness in the contribution of the factor of total productivity to economic growth," and it became clear that the efficiency of resource utilization did not rise to the level of ambition, and the reason is mainly due to political instability, accompanied by the misuse and distribution of resources, which contributed to the deterioration of the economic and social conditions of Iraq specifically during the period (1980-2017). It was also found that the dummy variable of political instability has taken many forms and continuously influencing, was reflected in the fluctuation of growth values in the factor of total productivity calculated by methods and formulas, totaling fifteen practices of the total production function. The successive political events with their diversity were a concomitant characteristic and negatively affecting the Iraqi economic growth during the mentioned period.

Climatic, weather and socio-economic conditions corresponding with the mid-17th century eruption cluster

The mid-17th century is characterized by a cluster of explosive volcanic eruptions in the 1630s and 1640s, deteriorating climatic conditions culminating in the Maunder Minimum as well as political instability and famine in regions of Western and Northern Europe as well as China and Japan. This contribution investigates the sources of the eruptions of the 1630s and 1640s and their possible impact on contemporary climate using ice-core, tree-ring and historical evidence, but will also look into the socio-political context in which they occurred and the human responses they may have triggered. Three distinct sulfur peaks are found in the Greenland ice core record in 1637, 1641–42 and 1646. In Antarctica, only one unambiguous sulfate spike is recorded, peaking in 1642. The resulting bipolar sulfur peak in 1641–1642 can likely be ascribed to the eruption of Mount Parker (6° N, Philippines) on December 26, 1640, but sulfate emitted from Koma-ga-take (42° N, Japan) volcano on July 31, 1641, has potentially also contributed to the sulphate concentrations observed in Greenland at this time. The smaller peaks in 1637 and 1646 can be potentially attributed to the eruptions of Hekla (63° N, Iceland) and Shiveluch (56° N, Russia), respectively. To date, however, none of the candidate volcanoes for the mid-17th century sulphate peaks have been confirmed with tephra preserved in ice cores. Tree-ring and written sources point to severe and cold conditions in the late 1630s and early 1640s in various parts of Europe, and to poor harvests. Yet the early 17th century was also characterized by widespread warfare across Europe – and in particular the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), rendering any attribution of socio-economic crisis to volcanism challenging. In China and Japan, historical sources point to extreme droughts and famines starting in the late 1630s, and thus preceding the eruptions by some years. The case of the eruption cluster in the late 1630s and early 1640s and the climatic and societal conditions recorded in its aftermath thus offer a textbook example of difficulties in (i) unambiguously distinguishing volcanically induced cooling, wetting or drying from natural climate variability, and (ii) attributing political instability, harvest failure and famines solely to volcanic climatic impacts. This example shows that the impacts of past volcanism must always be studied within the contemporary socio-economic contexts, but that it is also time to most past reductive framings and sometimes reactionary oppositional stances in which climate (and environment more broadly) either is or is not deemed an important contributor to major historical events.