For decades, debates about the Muslim world have circled the same question: Why do so many Islamic countries struggle with freedom and governance?
In 2022, on the tenth anniversary of the Islam & Liberty Network (ILN), I set out to find an evidence-based answer. The goal was not another academic index—it was to build a mirror for the Muslim world: a tool that shows where we stand on liberty, leadership, and accountability, and how we compare to others.
The result was the OIC Freedom and Governance Report—the foundation of what would later evolve into the Islam & Liberty Index.
Why an Islamic Freedom Index?
Freedom, like justice, is not foreign to Islam—it is its heartbeat. Yet existing global indices rarely capture freedom from a Muslim perspective.
ILN’s framework divides freedom into three core pillars:
- Religious freedom – the ability to believe, worship, and express faith without coercion.
- Political freedom – the rule of law, accountable governance, and civic participation.
- Economic freedom – open markets, voluntary exchange, and protection of property rights.
To make freedom sustainable, a fourth dimension was added: quality of governance—the glue that holds all others together. Without good governance, freedom cannot endure.
The Challenge with Existing Indices
I began by examining two of the world’s leading measures:
- The Human Freedom Index (Cato & Fraser Institutes) – widely used, but built around liberal-Western priorities.
- The Islamicity Index (Islamicity Foundation) – comprehensive, but too broad, blending religious ideals with social development metrics.
Both had strengths, but neither reflected ILN’s balance of faith and freedom. The Human Freedom Index underplayed religion; the Islamicity Index leaned toward ideals still “unthinkable” in many Muslim societies—what political theorists call outside the Overton Window.
The task, then, was clear: create an Islam & Liberty Index (ILI) tailored for the Muslim world, realistic enough to be adopted, yet bold enough to spark reform.
Building the Islam & Liberty Index
The ILI was designed around four equally weighted pillars, each measured by reliable, global data sources. This structure balanced ILN’s philosophical priorities with empirical rigor—making it the first index explicitly grounded in Islamic liberal thought.
What the Numbers Revealed
The findings were both sobering and hopeful.
- Top performers: Albania, Suriname, The Gambia, Senegal, and Guyana.
- Lowest performers: Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen.
- Average freedom score across OIC countries: 5.53/10, classified as “Sensible” on the Overton scale—neither radical nor popular, but still far from ideal.
The highest regional scores appeared in economic freedom (6.78)—evidence that markets often function better than politics or religion.
The weakest link was governance (3.69)—barely “acceptable,” underscoring how fragile institutions remain the main obstacle to lasting liberty.
Regional Contrasts
While some high-income states like the UAE and Brunei performed well economically, their scores in political freedom lagged behind. Meanwhile, smaller democracies—The Gambia, Senegal, Bosnia and Herzegovina—showed that liberty does not require wealth, only will.
Comparing OIC with non-OIC countries revealed that Muslim states trail the global average by about one full point in freedom and nearly two points in governance—a full Overton category below.
Lessons for Reformers
The new index is not an end but a beginning. It gives Muslim reformers, policymakers, and educators a common language to discuss liberty—grounded in both Islamic ethics and empirical data.
It also provides a “practical window of discourse,” ensuring that proposed reforms stay within what societies can realistically accept today, while nudging them toward more open futures.
Final Thought
Freedom is not a gift bestowed from the outside—it is a responsibility cultivated from within.
The OIC Freedom and Governance Report marked the first step toward measuring that responsibility across Muslim societies. It reminds us that liberty, when rooted in justice and good governance, is not a Western construct but an Islamic imperative.
Read the full study: Omerčević, E. (2022, October). OIC Countries: Freedom and Governance Report.
Presented at the 9th Islam and Liberty Conference, Mardin, Turkey.
