photo credit: gfpeck via Flickr cc

Now that the conventional financial sector is in a bit of a mess, people are looking for alternatives. One solution that is enjoying popularity is the age-old ideal of interest-free banking. Two questions present themselves: 1. are the ideas behind interest-free banking sound, and 2. does it work? […]

photo credit: Masrur Ashraf via Flickr cc

The rationale for developing Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs) parallel to Conventional Financial Institutions (CFIs) emanates from the Muslim orthodox interpretation that equates the Qur’anic prohibition of riba with all types of interest. Since the major business of CFIs involves dealing in interest, the orthodox interpretation concluded that the business of CFIs was prohibited in Islam. That led to the need for an alternative basis for banking business within the Islamic framework.

[…]