In the Muslim world, think tanks started to be established and institutionalized during the last 10 years. They are relatively new. Therefore, it was not possible to organize such a meeting 10 years ago. This forum is proof that the think tanks of the Muslim world have reached a certain level of maturity. After this forum, this process should be institutionalized by organizing similar forums in other Muslim countries every year. A Muslim World Think Tank Platform should be established to facilitate sharing of experience, information and analysis. In this way, the relations of think tanks with the government or the state, their budgets and permanent staff (full-time employment of regional or topic experts) and other problems of think tanks and how to deal with them can be discussed.Since almost all Muslim countries are characterized by democratic problems, their governments or state organs tend to adopt a skeptical view of nongovernmental organizations and think tanks. In Muslim countries, companies that do not function within the protective umbrella of the state and think tanks, which are established in the form of associations or foundations, are not considered for the public interest. They are generally deprived of material or political support from the state and can be accused of collaborating with foreign powers and are not allowed to make analyses criticizing the government’s performance. Only those think tanks that function under the protective aegis of a public organization (in general, the foreign ministry, the presidency, the prime ministry or a state university) are allowed to have a controlled life. The possibilities for exchanging employees between think tanks and public organizations or political parties are either nonexistent or considerably weak. The state seeks to maintain its monopoly on processed or raw information. In Muslim countries, the state tends to refrain from sharing the monopolized raw or processed information with think tanks, citing security reasons. In Muslim countries, the material or political support afforded to businessmen and their associations is denied to think tanks. For instance, the private sector is provided with such incentives as lower taxes or other employment- or export-related subsidies. The heads of state, presidents, prime ministers or foreign ministers of Muslim countries tend to include businessmen in their delegations during their domestic or foreign visits but fail to do so with respect to think tanks. In Muslim countries, the private sector, too, is indifferent to think tanks. The private sector tends to regard think tanks as unnecessary and a potential threat to their relations with the government, so it opts to completely steer away from them, let alone give them material or intangible support. In the private or military sector, there is a very weak tradition of employing think tanks for certain projects. Moreover, the governments and states of Muslim countries do not like the idea of local think tanks being employed by foreign governments or foreign NGOs for certain projects or being sponsored by them. Therefore, the act of project production by think tanks in Muslim countries is generally weak, unreliable or flawed in terms of scientific knowledge or research.
There are relations between high-ranking politicians and businessmen in Muslim countries, but this is not the case for intellectuals or think tanks. Since there is no sharing or joint production of information or analysis among Muslim countries, a Muslim country tends to receive information or analyses about another Muslim country from Western countries. In this case, Muslim countries are forced to view each other through Western filters or goggles. In sum, the communication or interaction among think tanks in Muslim countries has failed to improve beyond mere chatting.
