Islamic finance - Different interpretations

Different interpretations
Formerly monolithic and dominated by the oil monarchies of the Gulf (especially Saudi Arabia), Islamic financial networks currently reflect the diversity of the Muslim world. Even countries that have made the complete Islamization of their economies have disparate systems arising from geopolitical or economic circumstances and different religious interpretations. The instruments now experiencing the greatest growth are often those who in the 1970s, were considered to be illegal (insurance or takaful) is still limited use (the fund). Thus, in parallel with the growth in the world of finance to ethical or socially responsible mutual funds, the funds are invested in companies or sectors whose legality is established (7) draining the savings of Muslims today . Islamic financial institutions operating in over seventy-five countries.
The inclusion of this Islamic finance in the global economy is full of paradoxes. The fact that the financial years 1990 generates most of its profits from commissions and fees for services (and not as formerly from the interest differential between loans and deposits) allowed to bypass the theological debates relating to riba. Moreover, the wave of financial innovation resulting from deregulation has made possible the design and sale of all kinds of "Islamic products." Such a requirement could be broken, allowing each of its two components - the "principal" and "interest" - to be sold separately.
In addition, the decline of traditional commercial bank doubled the growth of investment banks and venture capital companies justify the merits of the idea of ​​participatory financing. Moreover, the approximation of finance and industry and the merging of business finance recreated the conditions of the world "Bankers without banks" that prevailed during the golden age of Islam.
Political developments in the Muslim world put forward certain aspects - the right to private property and free enterprise, the importance of contracts or private charity - which showed the compatibility of this conception of Islam with the " Washington Consensus "(8). Religion could then be used to deregulate, privatize, or reduce public services. Some governments - Malaysia and Bahrain, for example - made use of this interpretation to modernize their financial systems, countering other forms of Islam or face backward rentier classes and a private sector refractory to structural adjustment (9). As noted by a recent survey by the Financial Times, in many Islamic countries, Islamic institutions are often the most dynamic and innovative (10).
But ultimately the appeal of Islamic finance is mainly due to the excesses of global finance (11). For the middle class emerging in a rise of Pietism, the alternative is clear. If they have to choose between conventional finance has secular, if not "amoralisée" and a system of ethical finance sanctioned by religion (and based on the principle that economic activities remain beneficial as they take place within a strict moral framework), the decision is even easier than the number of Islamic products and institutions that offer them is growing.

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