By Robin Wigglesworth
Published: October 27 2008 18:00 | Last updated: October 27 2008 18:00
As governments in Europe and the US were busy bailing out their banks and attempting to stem the collapse in equity markets, a prominent Islamic cleric saw an opportunity to lambast western-style capitalism.
“The collapse of the capitalist system based on usury and paper and not on goods traded on the market is proof that it is in crisis, and shows that Islamic economic philosophy is holding up,” said Sheikh Yusuf al Qaradawi, a Qatari-based scholar, at a conference earlier this month.
In his opinion, it was time for the world to consider the methods of the rapidly-growing Islamic banking sector to prevent future crises.
While few bankers would take his views seriously, Islamic institutions do appear to have avoided the worst of the credit crisis and have generally continued to grow through the turmoil.
As they have to be compliant…..
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