Islamic Banking and Finance in the European Union: A Challenge For Studies

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By M. Fahim Khan, Mario Porzio
Publisher: Edward Elgar Pub
Pages: 241, Date: 2010-04
ISBN-10 : 1849800170, PDF 2.2 MB's Full

Description:
`As an introduction to the complex issue of harmonization of legal and regulatory structure of the European financial system and Islamic finance, this is a useful and welcome volume. The ideas, insights and practical issues addressed in the informed papers that compose the book should be valuable for academics and students of finance, and to those who provide legal and financial services.

The book will be helpful also to European regulators who have yet to appreciate the importance of Islamic finance and its potential contribution to financial globalization as well as to European economic growth.'
- Abbas Mirakhor, Former Executive Director, IMF, US

This timely book examines the authorization of Shari'ah-compliant intermediaries as either credit institutions or as investment companies in the European Union.

The contributing authors explore the key topics of this area through differing yet parallel perspectives - for example, comparing economic and legal standpoints, looking at both European and national levels and considering both academic and technical approaches. The book discusses the common origin of Islamic and Western traditions in commercial and banking transactions, reviewing a period in which the Italian merchants and their organizations drove the rebirth of post-medieval society in trade and law.

The editors investigate whether the Islamic banking and financial model complies with the European framework, spelling out the different experiences in single Member States (Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom). Notwithstanding the obstacles to being authorized as domestic credit institutions, they conclude that the access of Islamic intermediaries is suitable and may have positive effects on European integration, as well as increasing the competition among the stand-still operators and evoking the ethical dimension of banking and finance. The book also highlights how Islamic banking would make the industry more inclusive.

This multidisciplinary book will appeal greatly to economics and legal scholars with an interest in European and international banking and financial law, as well as postgraduate students in international law and banking law. Practitioners and regulators will also find this book an invaluable resource.

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Islamic Banking and Finance in the European Union: A Challenge (Studies in Islamic Finance, Accounting and Governance)

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Islamic Society in Practice

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By Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Pages: 191, Date: 1994-10
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0813013054

Description:
Written in the wake of the Gulf War, this book introduces the West to everyday Arab-Islamic culture and society, humanizing the region and its people. It ventures behind the headlines to offer a positive, constructive view of Islam and Muslims, showing how Islam is lived and practiced in daily life in the Sudan, Egypt, and Tunisia.

Islamic Society in Practice is both scholarly and personal, intended for classroom use and for a general audience. It examines Islamic society on a grassroots level, using the basic anthropological method of participant observation. It treats the major dimensions of Islamic society from the core elements of the religion (including the religious-social values it promotes) to the type of society it engenders, the laws that institutionalize social practice, and the contemporary movements for reform or restoration of Islamic precepts in individual nations.

Writing from the perspective of a sympathetic American woman, Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban discusses in depth the social dynamics of gender transformation and Islam, examining the complex issue as one more dilemma confronting societies that are struggling to cope with Western ways of thinking.

Fluehr-Lobban’s formal research and informal observations span the years 1970 to 1990, a time of dynamic change for the Arab and Muslim worlds. These decades took her from the life of a graduate student to that of a professor. With her husband and two daughters, she lived and conducted field research, traveling extensively in Africa and the Middle East. She conveys here the richness of her family experiences in their adopted communities, their deepening understanding of both Western and Islamic culture, and their growing appreciation for the Muslim "other" as a fellow human being.

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Islamic Insurance: A Modern Approach to Islamic Banking

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By Aly Khorshid
Publisher: RoutledgeCurzon
Pages: 224Date: 2004-03-25
ISBN-10 : 0415311055

Description:
Some Muslims believe insurance is unnecessary, as society should help its victims. "Insurance", however, need not be a commercial venture. In its purest sense, it is assistance with the adverse effects of inevitable afflictions, an arrangement beneficial to all. Schemes to ensure the livelihoods of traders and communities have been in existence for millennia.

Commercial insurance on the other hand, was invented ostensibly for the same ends but with the chief beneficiaries being the shareholders and directors. Among the countless revelations Islam passed on, two prohibitions, namely riba (usury) and gharar (risk), have been used by legislators as grounds for the prohibition of insurance. Islam is not against making money, and there is no inherent conflict between the material and the spiritual. Islamic law allows igtehad (initiative) to the benefit of people as long as there is no harm to other people.

Muslims can no longer ignore the fact that they live, trade and communicate with open global systems, and they can no longer ignore the need for banking and insurance. There is no prohibition in Islamic law against banking, nor insurance; similarly, Muslims can create insurance schemes that use their faith as the immutable basis for a working model. Aly Khorshid demonstrates how initial clerical apprehensions were overcome to create pioneering Muslim-friendly banking systems, and applies the lessons learnt to a workable insurance framework by which Muslims can compete with non-Muslims in business and have cover in daily life. The book uses relevant Quranic and Sunnah extracts, and the arguments of pro- and anti-insurance jurists to arrive at its conclusion that Muslims can enjoy the peace of mind and equity of an Islamic insurance scheme.

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Islamic Insurance: A Modern Approach to Islamic Banking (Islamic Studies Series)

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A Primer on Islamic Finance

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rared single pdf, with cover, no bookmarks
0.446 MB

Economics generally makes the assumption that human behavior is rational and, therefore, takes rationality as given. Religion, in contrast, considers humans to be fallible (thus potentially irrational) and aims to influence our behavior. Bringing religion into our economic lives, then, necessarily means bringing moral values into what is supposed to be free of such values. Some would think that never the twain—religion and economics—shall meet, but in reality, they do.

Moral values, often derived from the major religions of the world, are increasingly being
introduced into our economic lives in the form of environmental concerns, protection of
the rights of labor, and promotion of fairness in trade. In finance, the increased level of
interest in socially responsible investments is a good case in point. It is in Islamic finance,
however, where economics and religion really come together.

The rise of modern Islamic finance in various parts of the world has motivated many,
whether academics or practitioners, to understand it. Investment professionals, including
CFA charterholders, are no exception; they want to learn about Islamic finance because they
are working in this industry, are considering joining it, or simply want to quench their
intellectual thirst. Not surprisingly, many books have been written on Islamic finance to
meet this demand, but there is a scarcity of introductory texts that are simple but compre-
hensive. This monograph is one such text—reader friendly and wide in scope: It covers basic
Islamic financial concepts (such as riba and gharar), markets (banking, capital markets,
insurance), products (bank accounts, equity funds, and sukuk), and issues, such as corporate
governance and risk management. In presenting the material, the authors, Zaha Rina Zahari
and Bala Shanmugam, with the assistance of principal researcher Lokesh Gupta, have made
extensive use of the experience of their home country, Malaysia, which is perceived as the
most advanced and liberal model of modern Islamic finance.

This monograph helps the reader understand that the Islamic finance industry does
not have global Shari’a standards to decide what is and isn’t compliant in every part of the
world. Moreover, many observers note that there is a gap between the theory of Islamic
finance and its practice; they argue that the industry is putting form over substance to merely
replicate conventional financial products. The debate evokes much passion, and it seems to
be gaining momentum as Islamic finance gains market share and attention.

But debate is an inevitable consequence of the merger of faith and finance and, in
particular, of the emergence of Islamic finance. In the current global financial crisis, the
intellectual environment seems to have become more conducive to considering alternative
methods of meeting financial needs and increasing the role of moral values in our economic
lives. This monograph is, therefore, in tune with the times. The Research Foundation of
CFA Institute is pleased to present A Primer on Islamic Finance.

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