Message from Tun Dr. Mahatir Bin Mohammed First of all I would like to congratulate the International Islamic University Malaysia for organizing the International Conference on Leadership and Social Change in the Muslim World Challenges and Prospects successfully. Indeed this conference provides a great opportunity to ponder and discuss the tumultuous experiences in the Muslim world in the past few years in politics, economic and social fields. One can say that this conference is in fact the need of the hour, as it is a perfect platform for all the professionals, social scientists, academicians and leaders to review past policies and actions and prepare for a better future. Both leadership and social change are essential factors that affect the development and prosperity in the Muslim World. What is important is that, leaders and the people in general should understand that leadership and social change are complementary and that social change in itself is not necessarily destructive. What matters is the attitude with which a leader views and manages social change for the betterment of society and the nation as a whole. It is also vital for a leader to know his responsibility towards his people and the role he should play. Being a leader is an amaanah from Allah (swt) and that a leader like everyone else is accountable to God. On the other hand the followers too must play their roles, striving to make use of all the opportunities created to the maximum. They need to realize that this conference is to remind them of the role they should play in shaping a better future for the Muslim World blessed as it is with unlimited resources, man power and other bounties from Allah (swt). مالسلاو, You, Thank Tun Dr. Mahatir Bin Mohammed 4
Message from The Minister Of Higher Education Man has been appointed the Khalifah on this earth by Allah (SWT) and given the responsibility to rule with justice, equity, truth and righteousness. However the present scenario is quite contradictory. There are several issues in this world and in our own communities that need to be brought into the light, and testifies as evidence of man s failure in carrying out Allah s duties. This Conference is a glorious opportunity to set things right and break the flawed image of man. It is an opportunity to spread the true message of Islam, to show that what ever the problem maybe, it can be solved with the true and sincere attitude, care, attention and intention with the help of Islam. Islam being not only a faith but a lifestyle can be applied to each and every aspect of human life be it, personal, social, national or international. I am glad that the International Islamic University Malaysia is taking the initiative in making the change and stepping forward to address the issues we see around us. It further heightens this University s unique mission of unity, leadership and quest for knowledge which is one of the keys to empowering young people in Malaysia and around the globe. I would like to congratulate the International Islamic University Malaysia and the Organizing Committee for successfully organizing this Conference. Lastly, with the support and guidance of Allah (SWT), I hope that our noble actions are blessed with the rewards of change, development and peace around the world in the near future, Inshallah. والسلام You, Thank MOHAMED KHALED BIN NORDIN 5
Message from Rector It is a great pleasure for me to pen this forward for this auspicious event that brings together people from numerous institutions, cultures and countries to share and exchange ideas and visions for the betterment of the Ummah and in turn humanity at large. I would like to express my gratitude to all the committee members who have made this conference a reality and a success with their tremendous hard work and perserverence. The International Islamic University Malaysia is privileged to host this unique international conference which I believe will offer a distinctive opportunity for scholars and researcher from various branches of knowledge to engage in a multidisciplinary forum that will address the role of Muslim leadership and its constructive contributions to the contemporary world, which is driven by the forces and dynamics of globalization. One of the purposes of this conference is sharing knowledge regarding the solutions of current problems, based on the Islamic standpoint. Another aim of this conference is to expand its international community of scholars in order to promote development, sustainability and peace worldwide. I hope that the solutions and the ideas generated from the conference will culminate in a concrete action plan to achieve our noble aims. I wish everyone a successful gathering. والسلام You, Thank Prof. Dato' Sri Dr. Zaleha Kamaruddin Rector 6
Message from Deputy Rector Dear Brothers and Sisters, Esteemed Speakers, Students and Friends, It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to the International Conference on leadership and social change in the Muslim world: prospects and challenges.your presence here has added more grandeur to this event and heightened the pride and meaning of this Conference which is to empower the Muslim Ummah. Today the Muslim nations around the globe have reached a point where it has become crucial for us to look back into our past and reaffirm our stance, our journeys and our goals that we as Muslim nations have aspired to, in order to make a mark in this world. We seem to have all but one thing that could change the way the Muslim nations are viewed and perceived and that single element is Unity. Unity has always been vital for the prosperity of nations. For the Muslim nations, it is essential to unite in all aspects political, economical, cultural, philosophical, educational and religious in harmony, in order to revitalize the roles of Muslim nations in this world. More importantly, to achieve our ambitions in such a manner that all nations shall benefit and thrive together for the greater good, for all, not just for one. On this occasion I would like to congratulate the Students Representative Council for successfully organizing this event. Its a glorious opportunity for us to come together and explore, engage, and challenge the knowledge we have on several grounds, and use it to understand the current issues and their solutions so that we may rise to meet these issues together. والسلام You, Thank Professor Dr. Nik Ahmad Kamal Nik Mahmod Deputy Rector, Student Affairs 7
Message from Dean, Student Affairs & Development Division Welcome, to the International Conference on leadership and social change in the Muslim world: prospects and challenges. This Conference in essence symbolizes the greater aim that we are trying to pursue and that is to evoke and inculcate the seeds of true and Islamic leadership in order to bring about social change. The International Islamic University is proud to host this Conference as pioneers in educating people in the need of an unfailing leadership within the Muslim ummah. As we all gather here in great urgency to discuss the issues and problems that we face, as a Muslim community, I hope and pray to Allah (SWT) that our efforts to tackle our troubles of race, region, and ethnicity are successful. In its process the Conference will highlight on the steps, ideas and procedures that need to be put into action in order to encounter the current issues and problems which we need to solve. We have amongst us young leaders, esteemed speakers, scholars, philosophers and analysts, which with all their knowledge, experience and enthusiasm I believe, this event couldn t have been better. Lastly, I would like to congratulate the Student Representative Council for organizing this Conference successfully and giving us an opportunity to have a say and fashion the way in which the future of the Muslim Ummah and the world as a whole evolves. I trust, that as we all participate and contribute to this Conference, we are further motivated to excel in our mission with hope, courage and conviction for a better future. مالسلاو You, Thank Dr. Akmal Khuzairy Bin Abdul Rahman Dean, Student Affairs and Development Division International Islamic University Malaysia 8
Message from President of SRC In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Peace and blessing be upon on our beloved Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) as the mercy upon mankind. Alhamdulillah, with His Blessings, we successfully organize the International Conference on Leadership and Social Change in the Muslim World: Prospects and Challenges. This is an annual event organised by Students Representative Council 2010/2011 to bring together number of Muslim Leaders, academicians, researchers, practitioners, and students, who are dedicated to the cause of research in the universities in various fields of their expertise. With the slogan Reviving Islamic leadership: Renaissance of Muslim Ummah, it is hoped that participants can manifest and reflect the universal ideas and Islamic identity and importance of universities and students themselves. Besides, the other outcome is to provide proper guidance and principles of Islamic leadership to the young Muslim generation which will help in fulfilling the objective of producing quality and dynamic Muslim leaders.we are the future leaders, thus we must prepare ourselves with knowledge and spiritual quotient to face the challenges in the future. On this special opportunity, I would like to thank to all speakers and presentersnfor their thriving achievements. Their success is a priceless gift to our Ummah. I also would like to express my gratitude to the organising committees for their unwavering commitment and dedication in making this conference as a successful one. A special thanks to our honourable President, Tan Sri Mohd Sidek bin Hj. Hasan; Honourable Rector, Prof. Dato Dr. Zaleha Kamaruddin; Deputy Rectors, Student Affairs and Development Division, staffs, students, visitors and sponsors for their continuing supports and kind cooperation. May all of us gain benefits and all the deeds will be accepted as Ibadah. InsyaAllah. Amin. مالسلاو You, Thank Mohamad Iqbal Bin Ab. Wahab President,Students Representative Council 2010/2011, International Islamic University Malaysia. 9
Message from Chairman of the Conference I welcome you all; on behalf of the entire Student Representative Council of International Islamic University to this much awaited International Conference on leadership and social change in the Muslim world: prospects and challenges. I believe this conference is the ideal platform where issues such as world peace and harmony, prosperity, unity and development can be dealt with effectively together with many other problems that are visible in our communities and in the world at large. It is crucial for young people like us, who form the backbone of any population to contribute in building the future of this world. Since we are the next generation, it falls into our hands to recognize, understand and analyze what is best for the people and nations of this world in all aspects so that we are ready to take up any challenge in the near future. Hence, it is the responsibility of every single youth in Malaysia and the world over to unite, against the barriers of cast, creed, status, region, boundaries and religion to make a difference so that the generations after us are able to witness humanity and prosperity of all nations at its best. Of course the path is difficult but not impossible and by the guidance of Allah SWT I pray that we are successful in our mission. My deepest gratitude to the Student Representative Council and the Organizing Committee of the Conference for all their hard work and commitment in making this Conference a success. This event couldn t have been possible without all of you. Last but not the least I would like to thank our speakers, judges, participants, esteemed guests, spectators and committee members for being here. مالسلاو You, Thank Mohammad Mohiuddin Chairman International Conference on Leadership and Social Change in the Muslim World Challenges and Prospects Vice President, Students Representative Council 2010/2011, IIUM. modiuddin_dis@yahoo.com 10
Content Page No Foreword...3 Abstracts...12 Tentative of Conference...35 Organizing Committee...45 Notes...49
International Conference on Leadership and Social Changein the Muslim World: Procpects and Challenges Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, February 11-13, 2012 Wisdom behind the Popularity of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan s Leadership in the Muslim World Saim Kayadibi 1 Yasemin Kayadibi 2 Abstract: Muslim world, particularly the Middle East face crisis of leadership for the last century, has been struggling with leaders who are not in concern of their own peoples problems, not protecting and looking for the interests of their country and the Ummah in general. Therefore, Muslim societies still remain as colony of the Westerners in terms of cultural and political, despite of physically being freed as colonized countries; they are suffocated from the rulers repression, persecution and dictatorship, which brought the peoples to the verge of serious social explosions. With Recep Tayyip Erdoğan s sitting on the Prime Ministry seat by the 2002 general elections, in which democratization process has been almost completed in Turkey, became a starting point for serious changes not only in the Muslim world but also in the whole world. The new Prime Minister, who have completed his self-confidence, besides Turkey s domestic affairs, he took the Muslim world s common problems as priorities in his agenda. A major recent survey of public opinion in Arab countries show that Turkey is viewed as having played the most constructive role in the past year s events and the prime minister of it, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (RTE), emerged as the most admired world leader, the most welcomed world leader, the most constructive leader in the region. Accordingly, these made Arab world to consider Turkey as really the model country for them in terms of its system of internalizing the concept of democracy and free elections. Hence, Turkey became a unique country in terms of providing peaceful environment for both secularism and Islam that represents 99 % of the population. Despite of the fact that, there must be cultural, social and historical reasons behind this reality, however, Arab world consider Turkey as the model country and its leader is the model leader for the Muslim world. In this research, the reasons behind the success of RTE and the popularity of Turkey, as a model country for Muslim world, will be investigated. Thus, it s hoped that this research would provide substantial contributions to the Muslim societies who are struggling to revitalize their dynamics in order to choose their own leaders among them and create their own civilizational parameters and values. Keywords: Leadership; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; Social Change; Muslim World. Introduction A phrase indicates that leader is born not be made, which means leadership is a God given gift. According to this saying, although the leadership is a God given blessings to people, it is not enough by its own. This God given blessing is connected with directly to education, environment and the family. He who takes wrong education, grows in the wrong environment or has a wrong family structure, even if he is created with a leadership capacity, will not add any values to the positive development of the society, however they would be so much harmfull as can be found many examples in the history. 1 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Saim Kayadibi, Department of Economics, Kulliyyah of Economics and Management Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), email: saim@iium.edu.my and skayadibi@yahoo.com 2 Yasemin Kayadibi, MA Student at the Department of Psychology of Education, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), email: yaseminkayadibi@yahoo.com 1
International Conference on Leadership and Social Changein the Muslim World: Procpects and Challenges Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, February 11-13, 2012 In that respect, educating and training those people who are gifted in special education is very essential for the better society. The following points are particularly worth noting that some thoughts are wrong, for example I am not a God gifted person and not be able to be a leader, since with sincerity and intimacy of a person with the help of Allah (swt) can make important contributions to society. For this reason, it might be said that every man could be a leader but not every leader leads to the right path. In other words, not everyone is born leader, but everyone could be a potential leader. The fundamental condition to lead people to the right path and to keep them on it is to stick to the basic universal principles such as justice, freedom, equality, honesty, trust, and equal opportunities to the subject of the country irrespective of religion, race, and language. Not to follow self desires and enthusiasm, but to have discretion as life coach and guide as well as to act according to divine wisdom. All over the world, and especially the Islamic world, the peoples of the country, besides internal battles they fight against their own leaders. Barbara Kellerman from Harvard University, who wrote a book "Bad Leadership" on such leaders those who are, as she classified, non-competitive, not developing himself, inconsistent, reckless, immoral, narrow minded and having pleasure from terribly persecuting to its own subjects. The countries and peoples of such leaders are being faced serious social and economical problems and eventually they become colonies of the imperialist countries. Especially in the last decade, there are many significant factors that made the current Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's popularity has been increased both in the Muslim and non-muslim World. In this paper, we will try to discuss the possible agents that lifted him into that position. For this purpose, besides the recent happenings of Arab uprising, as well as the world economic forum, etc., family, life, the effects of the environment and education mechanisms which are effective on the formation of Erdoğan's personality will also be discussed. The factors that lifted Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to the leadership: The importance of personal life of Erdoğan, family, education, environment, politics, is not disregarded in his successful carrier. Therefore, it is well worth mentioning them here briefly. Erdoğan was born in Istanbul in 1954, studied in Istanbul Religious Vocational High School (İmam Hatip Lisesi) 3 and in 1981 graduated from the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences from Marmara University in Istanbul. 4 While he was studying in the faculty and playing semi-professional football, 5 His hobby, playing football, started in around his school years until the 12 September 1980 military coup he has never left it about for 16 years which gave him a significant experience that lifted him to the position where he is now. 6 Erdoğan engaged in politics by joining the National Turkish Students Union and anticommunist action group. 7 He became the head of Beyoğlu youth branch of the Islamist National Salvation Party (MSP) in 1976 and at the same year he was promoted to the position of chair for the Istanbul youth branch of the party. 8 Following the military coup of the September 12, 1980, Erdoğan continued to involve in politics near to Necmettin Erbakan. In 1984 he became the chair of Beyoğlu disctrict of the party and immediately after this year he became 3 http://www.akparti.org.tr/site/yonetim/genel-baskan. Retrieved on 16 Jan 2012. 4 Columbia University World Leader Forum, http://www.worldleaders.columbia.edu/participants/recep-tayyip-erdo%c4%9f. Retrieved on 21 January 2012. 5 Man of 2011, http://www.manof2011.com/profiles/71.html. Retrieved on 16 January 2012. 6 Hüseyin Besli and Ömer Özbay, R. Tayyip Erdoğan Bir Liderin Doğuşu, (Istanbul: Meydan, 2010), p. 11. 7 Omar Elmershedi, Erdogan a visionary out of a turbulent Muslim world, http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20111230114673. Retrieved on 16 January 2012. 8 http://www.jef.org.sa/speakerdetails.asp?pageid=324. Retrieved on 16 January 2012. 2
Wisdom behind the Popularity of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan s Leadership in the Muslim World Presenters: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Saim Kayadibi & Yasemin Kayadibi International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) International Conference on Leadership and Social Change in the Muslim World: Prospects and Challenges, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 11-13 February 2012