Islamic finance in the global era

Asia News ^ | 11/04/2013 16:52 | Daniele Atzori

[haffast]

Rome (AsiaNews) - With the ninth World Islamic Economic Forum, held in London between 29 and 31 October, Islamic finance has come into its own and gone mainstream. Until a few years ago, Islamic finance was unknown to most people. Some even equated it to the financing of Islamic terrorism. In fact, in the years right after 9/11, anything about Islam was viewed with concern. Now things are different.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who spoke at the forum, said that London is no longer happy to be the main Islamic financial centre outside Muslim countries; it now wants to compete directly with Dubai and Kuala Lumpur. In 2006, Gordon Brown, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, expressed similar views. Yet, if they seemed unrealistic to most people at the time, the international situation is now quite different.

With Europe reeling from the economic crisis, the prospect of attracting capital from cash-rich regions, such as the oil-producing countries, is a very attractive idea. In fact, Cameron has announced his government's intentions to issue a sukuk bond compatible with Sharia in order to raise 200 million pounds.

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Islamic economics developed against this background as a discipline whose aim was to achieve a comprehensive reform of the economic system in accordance with the principles of Islam.

Islamic economists saw socialism and capitalism as failures, since both were based on a conception of human beings that ignored the spiritual dimension. And Pakistani Islamist thinker Abu Ala Mawdudi identified the foundation of Islamic economics in the Qur'anic ban on 'riba', usury, defined as interest.

If Islamic economics developed a theoretical basis to critique Western economic theories, Islamic finance, which emerged in the 1970s, represents a practical attempt to create an alternative system.

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[haffast]

"The critique by Islamic economists of our economic and social model has led them, in many ways, to reflections that are parallel to those that have come out of other great religious traditions of humanity, above all the social doctrine of the Church."

"From Rerum Novarum in 1891 to Caritas in Veritate in 2009, the Catholic Church has been deeply involved in thinking about the same issues addressed by Islamic economics. An ecumenical debate on these issues would thus be an additional source of hope for humanity."

"A wild capitalism has taught the logic of profit at any cost, give to get, exploitation without looking at people, and the results we see in the crisis at hand," said Francis during a visit to the Gift of Mary house in the Vatican, which was founded by Mother Teresa and dedicated to the poor. - See more at: http://www.lifeinitaly.com/news/en/193546#sthash.i39Y3F4b.dpuf

[yldstrk]

yeah they won’t charge interest but have no issue at all with fees

[WilliamofCarmichael]

cash-rich regions, such as the oil-producing countries

How many millions of dollars are those cash-rich regions spreading around Washington and state capitals to keep U.S. citizens out of such an oil-rich region right here in the U.S. of A.?

Void the bowels of Washington, D.C. 2014, 2016

[Leaning Right]

Cameron has announced his government's intentions to issue a sukuk bond compatible with Sharia in order to raise 200 million pounds

Compatible with Sharia! The West is killing itself. Death by a thousand cuts.

[SamuraiScot]

Until a few years ago, Islamic finance was unknown to most people. Some even equated it to the financing of Islamic terrorism.

I wonder why. Some things just seem to go together, eh?