# Kiriakou's Pakistan-Islam economic critique

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Kiriakou's Pakistan-Islam economic critique," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/pakistan-islam-economic-critique/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's controversial view that Islam has held Pakistan back economically, contrasting Pakistan's stalled development since the 1960s with South Korea's — which had the same GDP as Pakistan in 1964 — and citing lost productivity from prayer breaks and holy days, resentment over partition, and spending on nuclear weapons instead of infrastructure and education.*

- **Claim (per Kiriakou):** Islam "holds that country back" economically
- **Comparison:** Pakistan and South Korea had the same GDP in 1964
- **Cited factors:** Production halted for five daily prayers; frequent holy days; midday heat shutdowns; resentment over 1947 partition; nuclear program spending over infrastructure/education

[John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) has offered what he calls a controversial opinion: that Islam has held Pakistan back economically. He notes that Pakistan and South Korea had the same GDP in 1964, and that Pakistan has vast textile manufacturing producing much of the world's clothing at a fraction of Western production costs — yet the two countries' economic trajectories have diverged sharply since.[1]

## Prayer breaks, holy days, and the heat

Kiriakou says he personally witnessed the productivity cost: Pakistani factories must shut down five times a day for prayer, observe holy days roughly every other day, and halt work again during the hottest part of the afternoon, when workers go home to sleep. He contrasts this with South Korea, which in the same period built out cars, planes, cell phones, televisions, and kitchen appliances to become one of the wealthiest countries in the world.[2]

## Partition and nuclear spending

Kiriakou says Pakistan remains resentful over the 1947 partition and its lingering tensions with India, and argues the country has spent money on nuclear weapons programs that could instead have gone toward infrastructure and education.[3]

## See also

- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. EXCLUSIVE! MUST SEE LIVE INTERVIEW WITH LEGENDARY CIA WH (2022-04-09), at 1:00:37. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwegyuWY758&t=3637s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-04-09-will-turbitt/
2. EXCLUSIVE! MUST SEE LIVE INTERVIEW WITH LEGENDARY CIA WH (2022-04-09), at 1:01:09. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwegyuWY758&t=3669s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-04-09-will-turbitt/
3. EXCLUSIVE! MUST SEE LIVE INTERVIEW WITH LEGENDARY CIA WH (2022-04-09), at 1:01:41. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwegyuWY758&t=3701s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-04-09-will-turbitt/

---

From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/pakistan-islam-economic-critique/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt