Peace, the Essential Message of Islam

Misunderstanding of Westerner about Islam. Islam originates from the word "Salam" which means peace, submission and tolerance. Islam has never preached for intolerance, hatred and violence. It has despised violence and bloodshed and having no place for extremism. Islam is a religion of moderation rather than extremism. The Holy Quran enshrines benign treatment and attitude even towards non-believers, who are residing in Muslim state and to guarantee them all their basic rights of life and property. It negates hatred and fundamentalism and stands for universality. There arises question that how this situation has been muddled and the real soul of Islam is distorted? How incendiary norms have been infested in federally administered tribal areas of Pakistan? There is a need for implementation of anti-terror laws and to condemn terrorism in all its manifestations.

Remodeling Corporate Social Responsibility: Development & Reporting of Theory, Scale and Index of Corporate Life Sustainability

The dominant approach developed in academy and industry has largely focused on the development of internationally recognized perspectives, frameworks and instruments. And there are different methods (scales, indices, databases and content analysis) to measure several corporate social responsibility (CSR) perspectives (including unidimensional concept, stakeholder theory, triple bottom line, Carroll’s CSR pyramid, and corporate sustainability) but all of them have some limitations. An instrument measuring different dimensions and factors of CSR that incorporates almost all major perspectives through theoretically and industrially viable method is still missing. Therefore, the study explores and measures the broader, applicable and viable perspective of corporate (life) sustainability through scale based index by providing theoretical base to industry practice. 300 senior managers and directors of 90 companies from Petroleum, Telecom, Banking, Media and Fertilizers & Chemicals industries are surveyed. CLS index is developed through identification of three major dimensions which include business sustainability, environment sustainability and humane sustainability. Constituents of business sustainability include marketing practices, business code of conduct, corruption & bribery, sustainable business performance and corporate governance. Environmental sustainability comprises of eco-efficiency, environmental priorities, health & safety and environmental reporting. Whereas, community welfare, employee rights, work-life balance, human capital development, discrimination & grievance are constructs of humane sustainability. Exploratory factor analysis is applied and 53 items are extracted in scale development process. Furthermore, principal component analysis is also applied for assigning weights to 14 factors in index development. This scale based index is used to rank companies and track their multi-facet performance in various industries. It also provides relief to industry from academic criticism on one side and provides alternative to being measured on several indices for different aspects of CSR on the other. This study serves as paradigm shift in consolidating CSR contemporary theories, perspectives and measurements with its global viability and ubiquitous applicability through establishing theory, scale and index of corporate life sustainability. Key words: Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Life Sustainability, Corporate Sustainability, Business Sustainability, Environment Sustainability, Humane Sustainability, Theory Development, Scale Development, Index Development