"The average number of corpses in Tehran mortuaries on any...

"The average number of corpses in Tehran mortuaries on any one day of last year was 6 - fewer of course on religious holy days and more on some other days. Last week's anniversary (Dey 13th) of Ali's martyrdom was total peace - a proof of the persistent strength of religious conviction, and of the calm and sanity society attains on days when sale of alcohol is banned and amusement houses are closed. " Such is the result of Muslims practising their religion's laws for 24 hours.

Could a single Western city report, if not 24 hours, even 60 minutes, without an accident, a theft or a murder? When will mankind attain the adult maturity to learn the simple lesson from which so easily comes the peace, the quiet, the unity that all want?

It is plain serendipity for us for, in the poet's words, "I round the globe in search of Heaven did roam: Returned, and found my Heaven was here at home." Islam and Economics Man has always had to wrestle with the task of exploiting nature's resources to extract his livelihood therefrom.

In the primitive centuries, as Aristotle said, life organised itself socially "to make it possible to live: and continued, to make it possible to live well." In the last four centuries a "science of economics" has been deduced from the statutes regulating human relations and the exchange of goods which developed through this social organisation. Faced with the vast expansion of a technology and affluence, this "science" has broken into two opposing camps.

On the one side "Capitalism" or "free enterprise" believes that nature should take its course in economics, so that an enlightened self-interest causes the genius of some finally to level out to the benefit of all. This is the doctrine for which the Western bloc stands. On the other side "Communism" holds that the means of production must be controlled by a proletariat state, so that a just and equal sharing of all the benefits of human endeavour is imposed on society.

The rivalry for absolute power between these two ideologies hangs over the modern world with a menace like the sword of Damocles. We must ask Marxists whether their "classless society" can be ensured by the single measure of making the means of production joint property and abolishing a moneyed class, when in fact a diversity of classes exists arising from other than economic causes.