The concept of insurance in Islam is a relatively new one. Conventional insurance contracts have been considered haram (unislamic).
As a result, the financial jihadists concocted their new form of Shariah-compliant insurance, known as takaful.
Despite their efforts, takaful has yet to gain wide acceptance in the Islamic world. As the article below details, the entire global market capitalization of the takaful market stands at a relatively tiny $12 billion and the market penetration in most Islamic nations is miniscule–just 1% in Saudi Arabia, where the average Saudi spends all of $41 per year on insurance.
This makes one wonder why a huge US-based conglomerate like AIG, which counts the US taxpayer as its majority shareholder, would be devoting so much time and energy into promoting takaful around the world, especially here in the West…
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/indepth/2011-04/11/c_13822862.htm
