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‘Don’t
let the name scare you. Islamic banking is beneficial for all':
"People should know that
the name Islamic Banking is used just to give an impression that it
works on the Islamic principles. Otherwise, it is an open option and
everyone whether ....Read
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New Delhi:
With the global financial crisis putting the spotlight on "casino
capitalism" of the West, leading scholars and experts from the Arab
world Thursday pitched for interest-free Islamic banking in India,
home to the world's third largest Muslim population.
Tracing the genesis of the global meltdown to "greed and
unscrupulousness" of financiers and speculators in the West, Umar
Chapra, adviser Islamic Development Bank, Jeddah, said the crisis
resulted from "excessive and imprudent lending."
"Islamic finance puts emphasis on equity and justice. Islam
discourages debt and the charging of interest on debt," Chapra said
at an India-Arab conference, organized by the Indo-Arab Economic
Cooperation Forum and Institute of Objective Studies, at the India
Islamic Culture Centre..
Chapra
stressed that under the Islamic system, financial capital is
deployed for creating development in society and is consistent with
the principles of Islamic law (Sharia) which prohibits the payment
or acceptance of interest for the lending and accepting of money
respectively.
Pitching for Islamic banking in India, Abdul Azim Islahi of Islamic
Economics Centre, King Abdul Aziz University, at Jeddah, pointed out
that some of the earliest research on Islamic banking came from
scholars at Osmania University in Hyderabad and Allahabad University
in Uttar Pradesh.
Agreed Monzer Kahf, consultant of Islamic Banking and Finance in
Qatar. "Islamic finance is not Islamic; it belongs to all of
humanity," he said.
India is keen to attract investment from oil-rich Gulf countries in
its burgeoning infrastructure sector and is, therefore, looking
afresh at proposals for introducing Islamic financial services in
the country.
Recently, K. Rahman Khan, deputy chairman of Rajya Sabha, India's
upper house of parliament, had told the Financial Times that the
ruling Congress Party is proposing reforms to the finance ministry,
the Reserve Bank of India and Securities and Exchange Board of India
to allow for the introduction of Islamic financial services.
A
large number of around 150 million Muslims in India - the third
largest Muslim population in the world after Indonesia and Pakistan
- prefer to stay away from commercial banks due to religious
proscriptions against interest-driven banking.
Making a case for Islamic financial products in India, Shailendra
Kumar, CEO of Eastwind Capital Advisors, said that before the
meltdown, most of the funds from the Gulf were going to the US, UK
and Malaysia. Now, after the meltdown, India, the world's second
fastest growing economy, is seen as a safe investment bet in the
Gulf, he said.
Many
companies from the Gulf are wary of investing with gambling or
alcohol companies, activities proscribed by Sharia.
Speaking at the seminar, Minister of State for External Affairs
Shashi Tharoor Wednesday called for greater FDI into India from the
Gulf region, which has around $3-4 trillion disposable revenues.
The
values of interest-free Islamic banking are finding greater
recognition. China, which has around 80 million Muslims, recently
gave its first licence for Islamic banking to the Bank of Ningxia.
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