CCM SEM 2

• Founded in 1945, has 22 member countries
• All of the members have arabic as their official language
• It has a general secretary and several commissions and specialized organizations
• Yearly conference with all leaders/rulers

About OIC

• Religious organisation with 57 member states (47 of them being muslim majority countries) and a total population of 1.6 billion
• Official languages are Arabic, French and English

Goals

• Preserve Islamic social and economic values
• Promote solidarity amongst member states
• Increase cooperation in social, economic, cultural, scientific and political areas
• Uphold international peace and security
• Advance education, specifically in science and technology field

• Political split that happened around 400 years ago
• 88% are Sunni, 12% Shi'a
• Shi'a are concentrated in Azerbaidjan, Afghanistan and Iran
• Shi'a have their own ideology and believe that a Imam will come and save them, they also have a religious clerigy like the catholic church which also collects money from the people

Differences between Sunni and Shi'a are the major trigger for conflicts between the groups.

• Founded in 1981
• Six member states: Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and UAE
• All members have the same natural resources oil & gas as well as the same topography
• All of them are Sunni
• All of them are monarchies

Goals

• Similar regulations in religion, finance, trade, customs, tourism, legislation and administration
• Scientific and technical progress
• Unified military (Peninsula Shield Force)
• Cooperation of the private sector
• Strengthen ties between its people
• Establishing a common currency (-> failed because some of the member's currencies are pegged to USD)

• Geopolitical position: 5 of 7 chokepoints worldwide are in the Arab world, energy routes
• Demography: 50% of population below 25 years -> big opportunity as they are the motor of the economy
• Democracy and stability: Bad performance on the index, best country is rank 70
• Conflicts and military spending: 4-5% of GDP
• Natural resources: Oil and energy, minerals, tourism, manpower
• Scarcities: Water, food, knowledge societies

• Faith declaration (Shahada)
• Prayers (Salah) -> 5x per day, friday mid-day has to be done in community (mosque)
• Charity, Alms (Zakat) -> general rule 2.5% of yearly savings
• Fasting (Siyam Ramadan) -> obligatory for every fit Muslim
• Pilgrimage (Hajj) -> obligatory once in a lifetime for able Muslims (health, wealth, security)

Every adult in possession of his faculties within the limits of his personal health, wealth and general condition. "You do what you can do"

Permitted

• all that is evidently not harming and everything which is not mentioned as well as food of the people of the book within the below-mentioned limits

Recommended

• Not to eat too much
• Not to enter food over not digested food
• (Not eat too much meat)

Forbidden

• Meat of animals found dead or carnivores (dogs, lions, cats, etc.)
• Meat on which the name of God is not invoked at the time of slaughtering
• Blood and blood products
• Pork
• Alcoholic beverages and drugs
• Exception: In extreme danger of death or medical prescription due to lack of alternatives

1. guarantee necessities
2. fulfill important needs
3. open the access to refinements if possible

Shari'ah (=law)

• "Constitution" of Muslims and includes the Qur'an and the Sunnah
• guideline dealing with ideology and faith, behavior and manners as well as with practical daily matters

Fiqh (=understanding)

• legal rulings of the Muslim scholars based on their knowledge and understanding of the shari'ah
• Fatwas (legal opinions) are delivered based on the Fiqh
• Has elements of flexibility, similar to precedents in common law system

Together, these rulings cover all aspects of human life.

1. Prohibition of Interests
2. Prohibition of Uncertainty
3. Prohibition of gambling and speculation
4. Prohibited sectors for investment activities (weapons, gambling, sex, alcohol, etc.)

We have to restrain ourselves from eating too much food whereas in former times life/nature restrained us from eating too much as not enough was available.

The desire to try new foods.

The fear that new foods might be harmful.

• Quality: Hard work, difficult/dangerous to catch, rarety, BIO
• Symbolic systems: Culture based value and meaning assigned to a specific food
• Religious legitimacy

• The argument of moral relativism: Western value standard is not necessarily taken as standard elsewhere.
• The argument of cultural imperialism: Behind the effort to implement human rights on a universal level, one might suspect the implementer's intention to political and cultural intervention and manipulation
• The argument of state sovereignty: The will to intervene and protect people wherever they are, curtails the authority of the nation state

• The human nature
• Universal values
• Commonly shared world view

• Humanity relies more on its culture than anatomy for adaption and survival
• Different cultures develop as living conditions are different from each other
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Building trust is extremely important for prosperity:

Higher levels of trust -> lower interpersonal violence

Higher levels of trust -> effective organizations and productive workforce

Effective organizations -> productive workforce

Productive workforce -> welfare

"There is no example in history where people first create economic and commercial relations and then establish a culture. People first establish a common language, agreed-upon codes of behavior, and a shared sense of purpose - to wit, social capital. Only when social cultures are well developed is there enough social trust to support commercial and governmental institutions.

Culture at two levels:

1. Psychic or psychological level: focuses on the internalized norms, attitudes and behavior of individuals from a particular culture.
2. Institutional level: looks at national (or group) culture embodied in institutions (government, education, economic instiutions, business organizations).

Caveat

• Withstand the "culturalist impulse" (impulse to mainly explain people's behavior with a "cultural difference")
• Also withstand the denial of culture motivated by political correctness considerations.

• Individual biography and genetic pre-disposition form our personality
• Having the same cultural roots does not mean that one is identical in his / her behavior
• In that sense: Every person is unique

• We are only partially conscious about our mental programming
• If people from different cultures meet, they tend to interpret the other person's behavior by basing their interpretation on one's own cultural value system

• Categorizing all members of a group as having the same characteristics. Each and every member of a group of people. In doing so, we also tend to exaggerate the differences between groups.
• Selective and inflexible perception
• Often judgmental - either in the positive or in the negative direction
• Often instantaneous

• Categorizing many members of a group as having similar characteristics.
• Flexible perception
• Formulate one or more hypotheses and test them in your new cultural environment

1. Awareness - a beginner's mind
   • An attitude of openness and lack of pre-conceptions when studying a subject
   • Awareness for cultural diversity and differences
   • Respect for the different cultures
   • Awareness for one's own pre-conceptions and stereotypes
   • Awareness for the adverse effects of ethnocentric viewpoints, evaluations and judgements
2. Knowledge - an inquiring mind
   • Interest in learning about a foreign culture
   • Knowledge about the foreign as well as one's own culture
   • Identification of conflicting values and norms
3. Skills - an agile mind
   • Observation skills
   • Intellectual flexibility and ability to change one's perception, opinion, understanding etc.
   • Verbal and non-verbal language skills
   • Ability to emphasize and at the same time to maintain an appropriate emotional distance in order to establish a balanced view of pro and contra
   • Intellectual agility to find a way to reconcile cultural differences

Universalism

• Equality and equal opportunities
• Tolerance for diversity
• At its worst: Overburdening of rules and regulations

Particularism

• High level of flexibility, improvisation talents and outcome oriented pragmatism
• Particularist culture celebrates what is unique and incomparable about people, situations and events
• At its worst: Discrimination, favoritism, chaos

Individualism

• Helps people help themselves
• Self-fulfillment and individual freedom
• Stand out, think different
• At its worst:
  • If everybody is different - society loses social cohesion / loss of social capital / loss of common purpose -> loss of trust
  • Greed, egoism, mercilessness

Communitarianism

• Togetherness, teamwork and solidarity
• A single rod is easily broken, while the bundle is very difficult to break
• At its worst:
  • Lack of individual initiative and slow progress
  • Human sacrifice and out-group demonization

Specificity

• Analyze the problem!
• At its worst: Paralysis through analysis and a great pile of bricks does not make a house

Diffuseness

• Complex interaction
• Makes quality everyone's job
• At its worst: Can lead to total vagueness/missing the point -> misunderstandings

-> Diffuse meets specific: Something you say might be taken personal from the other side and the other way around. Be careful when interacting.

Achievements

• Reflects feats of glory (honoring military service)
• Goes from rags to riches (vom Tellerwäscher zum Millionär)
• At its worst: Growth, growth, growth, optimization, optimization, optimization

Ascription

• Lays strong foundations
• Generates noblesse oblige
• Is a self-fulfilling prophecy
• At its worst: Elevates blue-blooded incompetents, racial profiling, caste system -> cross-generational discrimination and poverty