Norway is ranked sixth when it comes to Islamic values, a new global list due for release this year shows.
US-based researchers looked at 208 countries in the world. They concluded that the oil-rich Scandinavian country had moved up three places from the last list from 2010.
Ireland, Denmark, and Luxembourg were placed at the top of the list back then, Norway came ninth.
Iranian national Professor Hossein Askari, who led the research group at George Washington University D.C. which published the list, believes that the basic values of Islam are neither about Sharia law, nor a religious state.
The team went through the Koran and Islamic texts for the Islamic ideals in order to calculate the index and decide the countries’ position.
According to the yet unreleased new list, Muslim countries scored consistently low. Saudi Arabia was placed 131st, with Iran and Iraq following closely behind.
Democratic Muslim countries scored higher on the list than those with a Muslim regime of Kingdom, however.
Islam recommendations show that a country should have well-functioning institutions and a society based on economic and political freedom. Society should also be organised to promote economic growth.
Moreover, citizens should be treated equally, with the Qur’an strictly prohibiting suppression of citizens.
“We compiled an index based on the most important values of Islam. So we’ve seen how you can identify the values in the countries,” Professor Hossein Askari told NRK.
“What you quickly notice is that most Muslim countries have not done what they should according to Islam, unfortunately.”