When Islam hits the headlines it’s always sensationalized. The latest we hear is the national newspaper, The Star’s inadvertent publication of American singer Erykah Badu’s picture with the name ‘Allah’ in Arabic tattooed on her body. Her scheduled concert too has been banned by the authorities. The Star has issued an apology but some maintain that the newspaper should have its license suspended.
When we say that the market should be restrained by ethical norms we don’t by default mean that the state should carry that responsibility. Critics typically take as axiomatic that the market is the root of all evil that any instance of irregularity, deficiency or oppressive practices that occur in commercial contexts is taken to warrant immediate outside intervention; and by that is often meant the state. Such an assumption about the market seriously underestimates the possibility of the market itself in restraining its own excesses. The misplaced emphasis on developing measures external to the market to rectify the latter’s shortcomings has only the result of treating the symptom rather than the real disease.
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