In terms of GCC labour market reform, it is in many ways the best of times and the worst of times, as described in Dicken’s introduction to The Tale of Two Cities. On one hand, the speed, scale and scope of change continues to grow. Public sector pay and benefits have been reduced (then reinstated) by 20%, along with new Nitaqat regulations in Saudi Arabia and new maternity leave benefits and expatriate visa conditions announced in the UAE, along with increased international scrutiny on the fair treatment of expatriates, all since our workshop took place in August 2016. The dynamism of this field is centred on an increased recognition of the urgency and importance of reviving the moribund regional labour markets across the GCC. Private sector employers are clearly placed front and centre as the new frontier for nationalization in particular. On the other hand, the resources to invest in greater productivity and positivity in our region’s workplaces are still available and a young, growing and well – educated local workforce could afford the opportunity of a “demographic dividend” as much as a “demographic disaster”.

Nonetheless, it is also clear that achieving the shift to the “post – oil”, “knowledge – based economies” enshrined in the various visions of governments across the GCC within the next decade or so, will not be straightforward. Changing the nature of nationalization policies, fundamentally alters the social contracts established by ruling elites in regard to the distribution of economic rents gained from development based on the exploitation of fossil fuel resources since the middle of the twentieth century. Whilst it is clear that “nationalization 2.0” will remain at the heart of labour market reforms going forward, changing nationalization also has broader social impacts related to nationalism and national identity well beyond innovations in positive discrimination policies to regulate labour markets. Local labour policies lie at the heart of the loyalty and legitimacy nexus within the GCC and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

When an individual belonging to the community of Mohammed (ṣ) becomes conscious of the life around him, he finds himself in a town in which the call to prayer is raised five times a day and festivals take place celebrating the coming of the month of Ramadan with its fasting and evening prayers, just as he witnesses many feasts prepared for the reception of pilgrims arriving from holy spots after they performed the rituals of the pilgrimage. He also sees the widespread practice of giving regular charity or the alms tax to the poor and underprivileged. As he matures, there is this beautiful image of the religious life of his society deep inside him that makes him love performing the rituals because he feels that they represent a part of his identity and culture planted in him when he was young. Nevertheless, this forces us to raise a very important question: If Islam, as it appears, includes every religious community in all their diversity, that is, everyone who believes in God and the Last Day and does what is righteous is considered a Muslim, no matter what his religious community, how do we classify these rituals that we perform and take pride in within our societies?

To answer this question, we must search the texts of the Book for the meaning of īmān, just as we searched previously for islām, so that we can use them to explain the difference between islām and īmān, and then use the understanding we gain of īmān through the Book to understand the status of the rituals we perform as followers of the religious community of Mohammed (ṣ). [A 76]

1—The Meaning of Īmān (Faith) in the Book of God

We begin our search for the meaning of īmān by examining the Book:

—‘O you who believe [āmanū]! Believe [āmanū] in Allah and His Messenger, and the scripture which He has sent to His Messenger and the scripture which He sent to those before (him)’ (The Women 4:136).

—‘O you that believe [āmanū]! Fear Allah, and believe [āmanū] in His Messenger, and He will bestow on you a double portion of His mercy: He will provide for you a light by which you shall walk (straight in your path), and He will forgive you (your past): for Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.’ (The Iron 57:28)

Abstract

Organisations have become increasingly aware that a key driver of sustainability is the ability to attract, retain and manage talent effectively. Objectively assessing and effectively managing high performing employees has been the focus of much research and debate, yet many organisations still struggle when it comes to implementing an effective talent management system. This is particularly evident within developing nations and economies such as the UAE where these approaches are still in their infancy. Ironically the UAE, and the Gulf region in general, has a vast pool of young talent just waiting to be developed and engaged for current and future job demands. At Tanfeeth we have tried to approach this challenge from a scientific and evidence-based perspective, with the UAE’s specific demographic and cultural features in mind. So far we have had success with creating a highly predictive organisational talent model mainly focusing on leadership and management and we have now turned our attention to sales and customer service. The main aims of the research presented in this paper was (1) to understand the potentials, talents, competencies and skills which separates high performing sales employees from the rest. (2) To use this understanding to create a predictive model of sales performance which can help assessing to the extent to which someone will perform at an outstanding level within our sales teams. (3) To use the model to aid the identification of training, development and engagement activities that will develop and sustain high performance and (4) create a set of effective IT supported tools to manage sales employees across the talent life cycle. Initially 120 sales employees were selected to take part in this research but after a number of resignations and ‘reshuffling ‘of the sales team we ended up with a group of 79 participants. We divided this group into three sub groups based on whether they were top, medium or low performers. Each employee completed a number of assessments including potential, strength, mental ability and competency questionnaires in order to (1) identify core performance differentiators between the groups and (2) explore the predictive qualities of these differentiators. (3) Create a competency and skills framework for the department to further improve overall talent management processes and (4) develop a situational judgement test to be used for hiring and development purposes. Our results showed that a number of factors were predictive of sales performance and these factors were integrated into a set of tools and talent management methods to be used with our sales teams.

The ambitious goal of Islam and Humanity: The Consequences of a Contemporary Reading is to set out in a single, compact volume an approach to understanding the Qur’an—meant here in the broadest sense of God's message to humankind. Terrorism, democracy, social justice, ethics, morality, responsibility to family and community, governance, inheritance, and interfaith understanding—Shahrour tackles today's burning issues and those of earlier times. From his first book in 1990 to the present—now nearing three decades—Shahrour appeals to logic and reason make his case. His preferred vehicle is the printed word, not images, television debates, You Tube, or tweets. Deliberately austere in presentational form, his ideas have nonetheless resonated throughout the Arabic world and in translation.

Shahrour's vision of how to read the Qur’an in our present age was first set out in al-Kitab wa-l-Qur’an: Qira‘a mu‘asira [The Book and the Qur’an: A Contemporary Reading], an 800-page book first published in Arabic in Damascus and Beirut in 1990. The original edition quickly sold out, requiring a reprinting three months later, and a Beirut edition in 1992 (15,000 copies). As of 1996, 13,000 copies were sold in Syria, where the book’;s price, half a month’;s official salary for an educated professional at the time, would have been expected to limit its circulation.

By any measure, al-Kitab was an Arab world (and London) best seller. In many places, it quickly sold out or circulated only in photocopy. Banned in Saudi Arabia and, reportedly under Saudi pressure in the early 1990s, prohibited also in the UAE, Qatar, and Egypt, the book quickly sold out but nonetheless circulated in photocopy form. In September 1991, I was unsuccessful in finding the book in Kuwait in religious bookstores, but the bookshop owners with whom I spoke all said that they knew of the book but were advised by their shaykh not to read it. I then asked my driver to take me to a non-religious bookstore. In the first engineering bookshop we tried, I found dozens of copies of the book. In Casablanca around the same time, the book was readily available in the Habus quarter. Despite its formal prohibition in Egypt, some 3,000 copies were sold there by 1991 (as the book’;s Damascus publisher told me in 1996), and an Egyptian publisher subsequently produced a splendidly printed pirate edition in the mid-1990s (Shahrour gave me a copy). In Oman, Sultan Qaboos circulated copies to the country’;s senior officials, encouraging its reading but expressing no opinion on its argument.

Some may wonder why our contemporary reading of the authoritative revelation arrived at results at odds with what we are accustomed to in our religious culture. Our answer is that after we saw the great number of contradictions that confused us in our religion and caused us to stumble about in a tremendous intellectual chaos, so that each came to claim that he was a guardian of the religion, and that he was the only one who possessed the absolute truth, until the voices of the religious awakening rose with every wave of condemnation that others were godless and unbelievers, and each one was lost in the momentum of that chaos that diverted them from religion as the final Prophet and Messenger (ṣ) proclaimed it, we realized that until we understand the true Islamic religion as God wants us to understand it, we must push the heritage to the side and begin instead with the founding text of the religion and that is the Book of God that ‘No falsehood can approach it from before or behind it: It is sent down by One Full of Wisdom, Worthy of all Praise.’ (Explained in Detail 41:42) For it is His direct address to us that cannot contain any contradictions. Since the Exalted God has perfect and absolute knowledge, His Book must also be perfect as conveyed, that is, its credibility depends on its lack of contradictions.

We are convinced that since He is the creator of this vast universe with its infinite precision, it is not possible that he would send the people a book with contradictions so that anyone could explain it as he wishes. The Book of the Exalted and Almighty has the precision of the universe, and just as mankind needed to establish a scientific methodology to understand the universe and its secrets, which became the mission of centers of scientific research in geology, physics, [A 204] chemistry, medicine, etc., we now need a scientific methodology to provide the texts of the authoritative version an understanding that constructs a true structure for the human being so that he can become a being that deserves to be God’;s deputy on the Earth.

When we begin to discuss the subject of religion, we immediately think of the word “Islam” [islām], and we find that the Almighty God stated to us in the Book that Islam is the religion of God that He approves for His worshippers: ‘The religion before Allah is Islam (submission to His will).’ (The Family of Imran 3:19). If this is the case, what is this religion that the Almighty calls “Islam”?

The desire to propose our question directly to the Highly Exalted to investigate the splendid truth of His Noble Book without undue protraction compels us to note that it mentions the terms “assenting,” “Islam,” “Muslim,” and “the Muslims” in various places that we must approach to understand what they mean:

1—In the era of Noah: ‘Relate to them the story of Noah. Behold! He said to his people: “O my people, if it be hard on your (mind) that I should stay (with you) and commemorate the signs of Allah, yet I put my trust in Allah. Get you then an agreement about your plan and among your partners, so your plan be on to you dark and dubious. Then pass your sentence on me, and give me no respite. But if you turn back, (consider): no reward have I asked of you: my reward is only due from Allah, and I have been commanded to be of those who submit to Allah´s will (in Islam) [min al-muslimīn].’ (Jonah 10:71–72).

2—In the era of Abraham and Lot:

—‘Abraham was not a Jew nor yet a Christian; but he was true in faith, and bowed his will to Allah´s (which is Islam) [ḥanīf muslim], [A 16] and he joined not gods with Allah.’ (The Family of Imran 3:67)

—Lot: ‘We brought forth such believers as were in it, but We found not therein except one house of those that have surrendered themselves [bait min al-muslimīn].’ (The Wind that Scattter 51:35–36, AA)

We proceed from our conviction that Islam is a religion of mercy and tolerance, and that it is a religion of co-existing with others in peace and tranquility in an ethical framework that allows everyone the enjoyment of all their freedoms and human dignities, since it is a world religion which comprehends all of humanity, as in the word of God: ‘O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other (not that you may despise (each other). Indeed, the most honored of you in the sight of God is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And God has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things).’ (The Dwellings 49:13) Islam is not a religion of violence or killing or destruction, as is propagated about it. We see that we must reexamine the erroneous reading of the religion and introduce Islam from its original spring, that is, the authoritative revelation, based on a contemporary reading that harmonizes with the level of knowledge of the 21st century and the present state of scientific and ethical development.

We have gathered the thoughts in this book from our earlier publications. We hope that it fulfills the purpose of our composing it. Because, as the title indicates, Islam and Humanity: Consequences of a Contemporary Reading, it explains how Almighty God addressed mankind in His definite revelation, disregarding religious community, intellectual orientations, and ethnic or national origins, but rather focusing on the human being as a human being, and how He directs it divinely in order that its humanity ascends intellectually and ethically to build a human world which encompasses all [A 10] differences. For we are convinced that only such a wide religious perspective can provide a chance for every human being live his humanity wherever he is, and universal social stability.

At present, the Arab world is living through a political scene whose expectations and outcomes are indefinite and unknown, and in which common and rising slogans reverberate, some of which defend nationalism and some of which advocate various religious and political leanings. This fusing and blend of concepts expresses the extent of the fusing of the borders of religious, sectarian, and ethnic membership with political membership (monarchical, republican, or constitutional) in these countries until the differences between the community and the nation-state are no longer possible to demarcate. These concepts, however, are not new to our culture, but as ancient as our historical existence. Thus, we need a careful reading of this topic directly from the texts of the Book of God to clarify and separate the various meanings of these terms in a way that leaves no room for uncertainty.

1—The Meaning of Community, People, and Nation

These terms are used often in the daily life of our societies in different areas, sometimes with meanings that are fused or inconsistent. Thus, we need [A 172] to draw their meanings entirely from the texts of the Book of God until we have comprehended how they differ and identified the borders between them.

A—The Community

The Arabic term umma was derived from the root umm (mother). This root has numerous meanings, and the meaning that concerns us here is concerned with collective human behavior, in the word of God: ‘And when he arrived at the watering (place) in Madyan, he found there a group [umma] of men watering (their flocks)….’ (The Stories 28:23, revised). The collective behavior that unites the community in the verse is watering the flocks.

Since Islam, regardless of its religious communities, expresses the human nature exemplified in the values with which people behave among themselves with full freedom and without coercion, it represents the true identity of the human being in this world which he conducts himself by wherever he wants. It is an identity that neither submits nor assents to submitting to oppression and subjugation in any time or place. The human being, in the past, present, and future, is free and conducts himself with his human values in all areas of his life and with full freedom, and he will remain this way until the Last Day. He is only led to these values by choice, assent, and the full desire to express his absolute humanity in achieving the rank of God’;s deputy in the world. Where there is force, it cannot ever be from religion, for the Almighty has stated this clearly in his authoritative book, and He demands from us that we do not submit to any kind of force since it strips humanity from the human being.

1—The Difference between Obedience and Force

The linguistic root of obedience [ṭāʿa] in Arabic is ṭauʿ, and it means allowing oneself to be led and allowing oneself to submit. Obedience [ṭāʿa] means being led by another in full freedom, since the word comes from ṭauʿiya, which means a [A 122] willing and consensual submission to yield to the decisions of others with total choice and assent. It is the contrary to force [ikrāh], since obedience [ṭāʿa] is related to choice and force is related to coercion, which demonstrates their incompatibility the impossibility of bringing them together in the same position in the same person. Therefore, responsibility is a consequence of obedience since the human being does not obey and does not allow himself to be led by the decisions of others with a full measure of his will unless he is convinced of those decisions. Consequently, the human being becomes responsible for his obedience by applying it to these decisions. Therefore, when the Almighty said the following in His authoritative revelation:

—‘Say: “Obey Allah and His Messenger”: But if they turn back, Allah loves not those who reject faith.’ (The Family of Imran 3:32)

Abstract

Positive education and positive psychology have made good strides in developing human excellence, in particular, the development of character strengths conducive to better employment choices, career success, workplace engagement, and overall life satisfaction. Yet, few schools, universities or organizations develop these strengths leaving school-aged youth and young adults bereft of skills in their transition to adulthood. This is especially the case in the GCC countries where governments are on a path to steer nationals away from the public sector toward the private arena where they will compete on an even playing field with international expatriate labour. Many issues exist in meeting this challenge: (1) educational reforms have not yet produced desired results, (2) there is a reluctance to leave the public sector where pay, benefits, and job security are higher, (3) graduate students are unprepared for the workforce, lacking the strengths, or soft skills needed to excel. To address this gap, a character strengths development program (Strengths CompassTM) grounded in positive psychology and positive education, was developed and piloted to national and expatriate youth (aged 15 to 16) in Ras Al Khaimah (United Arab Emirates) to see whether the development of such a program is feasible and what lessons could be learned in delivery. Recommendations from this pilot are offered and suggest that character strengths can and should be taught to address the growing need for the mobilization and maximization of human capital in the GCC region.

Introduction

Across the Arab world, governments are recognizing the pressing employment needs of youth as they attempt to harness the human capital of this demographic group. How they respond to this challenge will determine their nation’s political stability and successful economic growth over time. The development of youth capital is crucial given the demographic and social transitions now underway in the Middle East/North African (MENA) region, where the demand for jobs currently outstrips available opportunities. With government efforts, education also plays a role in these developments; however, current educational outputs do not provide for job skills such as critical thinking, initiative and persistence, the lack of which hamper the ability of youth to succeed in jobs undermining their development, as well as that of their nations.

To address these and other developmental challenges, positive education, a subset of positive psychology combines best teaching practises with the identification and nurturance of character strengths and shows a promising foundation from which to tackle regional issues of employment and youth psychosocial development. From the perspective of positive education, schools are model settings in which to facilitate the development of social, emotional, and intellectual skill sets that promote individual and collective growth. The transition from a traditional educational paradigm focused on youth deficits to one centered on strengths and capacities emerged from the recognition that merely working on the negative and helping youth avoid or deal with problems did not result in the development of skills conducive to life and workplace success. As education is not only about teaching students to read and write, the inclusion of strengths facilitates the development and actualization of their full potential from which to attain a state of wellbeing and contribute to the development of a sustainable and stable society.

Abstract

Since the implementation of the first welfare state measures in Kuwait in the 1960s, government employment has been one of the important means of wealth distribution, as it is coming with significant financial incentives, and is in general less demanding compared to the private sector. As such, it has long ceased to be seen as a privilege, but is rather considered an inherent right and a part of the social contract. This policy has led to the bulging of the government sector and the subsequent fast increase of budget spending on wages, which has become a serious economic burden expected to result in budget deficit and fiscal crisis in the not so distant future. Shifting the part of the burden of employment to the private sector is generally seen as a solution recipe for the problem. The patterns of reaching this goal have been more or less uniform in all GCC states and have been based around labour nationalisation, supporting entrepreneurship and widening the scope of private sector operation. Although various policies have been implemented in Kuwait to promote all three aspects, so far the success of those policies has been quite limited. The blame for the failure of labour reforms is often put on the national population itself, which is deemed neither qualified enough, nor willing to work in the private sector. The present paper, however, looks at the other angle of the problem, that is – the role of Kuwait’s existing private sector and its prominent business players in the progress of labour reform policies. We argue that the unwillingness of the established business community to support national labour force, and more importantly, its ability to dodge the meaningful fulfillment of the labour policies’ requirements, is one of the major stumbling blocks for the progress of those policies. We illustrate our argument with two policy case studies – the national labour quotas requirement and the support of small and medium enterprises. We will show that in the first case, the private sector companies utilise various means to avoid the genuine implementation of quotas, while in case of the SMEs development, they are not willing to contribute to the government’s efforts in promoting new businesses, not least because they do not want any significant competitors to emerge.

Introduction

Following the 1970s oil boom, the Saudi state was able to gather income from oil production and distribute it throughout the economy and society. As Champion argues this was compatible with traditional Arabia values and allowed the ruling family to enhance its:

… unique blend of religious and political ruling legitimacy with a comprehensive system of largesse known as the ‘Saudi social contract’. This ‘unwritten’ contract committed the state to taking charge of the welfare of its population in return for acceptance of the established political order.

Nowadays, in Saudi Arabia a new generation of leaders led by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is transforming the traditional state-society relationship, specifically with the launch of Saudi Vision 2030. In turn, this has resulted in the Kingdom’s predominantly youthful, and often well-educated, population reexamining the existing social contract at a time of significant socio-economic change. This is because the economics of the social contract have come under increasing strain as a result of low oil prices thereby impacting on Saudi Arabia’s economy; in particular the related issues of employment and housing. Moreover, due to the low oil price, the Saudi government has started to impose fiscal restraint and this presents a significant challenge since its citizens are accustomed to government largesse. Indeed, the participants at a 2016 Chatham House workshop on “The Social Contract in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)” agreed that as GCC governments respond to the challenges of falling revenues and the need to diversify their economies away from hydrocarbons, the impact of contemporary socio-economic realities on the existing social contract will require “new strategies of consulting and communicating with the various domestic stakeholders and managing public expectation”. Indeed, as Hertog notes, each economic crisis in Saudi Arabia creates pressure for ‘radical’ reform and/or a redefinition of the Saudi ‘distributional’ system or ‘social contract’.

However, the usage of the term ‘social contract’ is often criticized as being eurocentric – as well as not being understood in the same way when translated to Arabic – and thus, does not explain adequately the relationship between the governing and governed in the Kingdom. In addition, in the Saudi context, the English language usage often has negative connotations as it suggests ‘cooptation’ of diverse societal constituencies by the Saudi government. Hence, according to Saudi academic, in the domestic context the idea of a social contract is best understood as “mutual benefits” between authorities and citizens. That is the government benefits from this contract as the citizen pledges loyalty to the political system and in return the government provides welfare and, for example, a job for life. Thus, as Belbagi argues, the force holding the social contract together is “the good citizen”. Nonetheless, how do young male Saudis interpret this ‘mutual bond’ between the government and citizens? Furthermore, does their interpretation of these mutual benefits match that of the authorities? Because if a ‘mismatch’ exists then this would require a revision of the role of the state in the economy or in fact a shift in the government’s economic relationship with society.

Abstract

According to a recent report by the World Economic Forum “in the context of an increasingly competitive global economy, the transition from education to productive and rewarding employment is challenging for young people everywhere”. However, the situation is even more profound in the MENA region, including the GCC with its persistent levels of high youth unemployment and under-employment and expanding population where “2.8 million young people are entering the labour market every year.” (WEF, 2014). Developing the skills, capabilities and mindset of youth is absolutely crucial both within and without the formal education system. The total number of students in the GCC region is expected to grow from an estimated 10.2 million in 2011 to 11.6 million in 2016, a compound annual growth rate of 2.7% (Khaleej Times, 2015).

The effective learning and transmission of knowledge, skills and culture has always been a critical means of achieving human development. Since the establishments of civilisation, this has at least partly been achieved through formal education for academic or vocational purposes and new technology challenges existing methods and provides greater opportunities to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of learning. Our world is increasingly being recognised as a VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous), whether from an environmental, economic or employability perspective. As the recent decline in oil prices and the increasingly chaotic regional geo-political situation has demonstrated, there has been no time more urgent that today to skill, upskill and reskill our population to diversify our economies and build the knowledge-based hubs which are crucial to every GCC nations strategic vision.

For some time now, the region’s policy-makers have committed to the establishment of ‘knowledge-based economies” which will accelerate the continued development of their societies beyond their reliance on energy revenues and the dependence on government employment and rent-seeking behaviour which results. In addition, recent work by Ridge (2014) and Jones, Le Ray and Punshi (2016) has cited the cultural preference for more passive, didactic forms of learning, the differential roles of nationals and expatriates as positive teaching role-models amongst boys and girls in determining their drastically different levels of average performance. Within the GCC in general, girls outperform boys in all subjects, whereas in most of the rest of the world, boys still outperform girls in STEM subjects.