Islamic socialism is a term coined by various Muslim leaders to counter the demand at home for a more spiritual form of socialism. Problems arise for Muslim socialists when Islamic scholars declare them to be atheist. It is for this reason that they tend to create a new brand of socialism they call Islamic socialism.

One of the very notable persons in this context was the Pakistani leader of Pakistan People's Party, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (1928 to 1979). He promoted Islamic socialism in order to calm down the people after the Islamic scholars declared him and his system to be atheist.

Researches have, however, proved the Islamic economic system to be very close to that of socialist theory, e.g., both are against unearned income. Islam does allow private ownership but private ownership of natural resources and large industries are to be owned collectively.

Other notable proponents of Islamic socialism include:

• Gamal Abdel Nasser (See also [1])
• Muammar al-Qaddafi
• Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr