Recently, I met a Muslim friend who migrated to Europe. According to him, Europe is the best example of an 'Islamic state'. It sounds strange at first, but when one weighs the facts, there is possibly some truth to this.

The military and police forces in Europe are there to serve the people while in most Muslim countries, the military and police force are being used to stifle dissent and keep dictators in power.

Despite zakat as being a pillar of Islam, poverty is widespread in Muslim countries. In Europe, you find the contrary because of minimum wage legislation, trade unions and the imposition of high taxes upon the wealthy which are then chanelled to the poor through the social welfare system.

Muslim countries lack social welfare because their leaders are corrupt and prefer to build grandiose palaces for themselves using the people's money.

Even the judicial system is more 'Islamic' in Europe than in most Muslim countries. The implementation of law involves four main steps, that are prosecution, burden of proof, judicial independence and sentencing.

Many so-called Muslim countries attempt to find shortcuts by imposing harsh sentences claiming this constitutes Islam, ignoring the fact that truth, justice and fairness are more important in Islam.

Many Muslim countries use their courts to persecute instead of prosecute. Without the high level of proof required in Islam and the lack of independence in their courts, most Muslim countries can hardly call themselves 'Islamic states'.