ISLAMIC FINANCE: A WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The new Islamic economics paradigm has developed almost in isolation of contemporary Western economic literature. Islamic economics and finance has so far failed to capture the interest of Western writers. Unfortunately also Islamic writers have focused upon the Koran and mainly Asian literature without utilising a wide body of literature in the West which would assist with the development of the Islamic paradigm. This article begins to rectify the latter deficiency by exploring three key issues -support for the prohibition of interest in Western literature, the blame attached to interest based systems in the creation of business cycles in capitalist economies and empirical evidence on attitudes towards Islamic finance.