Islamic finance in Australia has witnessed the rapid growth since it was first introduced in 1989 with the Muslim Community Cooperative Australia (MCCA). The operation of Islamic Financial Services Providers in Australia is still subject to basically the same laws and regulations as their conventional counterparts and applies the same conventional interest-based framework for regulatory and sup...

The article is concerned with the latest developments in Indonesia's Islamic field. Its focus is on the role of social media in exchange relationships between Islamic preachers and their constituency. The article first discusses economic exchanges between preachers and their followers, and then it concentrates on social exchanges and how they are mediated today. Empirically, the article deliver...

Since the introduction of Islamic bank, the intense competition in the banking industry has been increased exponentially. Islamic banks are not only competing among other Islamic banks providers but also with conventional banks which have offered Islamic windows as an alternative to their customers. As many banks started to offer Islamic banking services/products to the customers, one of the im...

Conventional credit card transactions are not consistent with Islamic principles, as exemplified by the Islamic banking system and the ‘Murabaha sale’. On the other hand, EMV-compliant IC (Integrated Circuit) cards have been developed to secure traditional Point of Sale (POS) transactions. Thus, if Islamic principles are to be applied to card payments, a new and secure card payment process is r...

A fund manager has to abide by a set of business and financial parameters before selecting and including a particular stock in an Islamic fund portfolio. There are various Islamic screening methods followed by stock indices and banks, namely Dow Jones Islamic Market Index (DJIMI), FTSE Global Islamic Index Series, S&P 500, MSCI (Morgan Stanley Capital International) and Accounting and Auditing ...

There is a vast literature on regulatory, monetary and institutional aspects of traditional banking system. This is not true for the interest-free Islamic banking framework. In this paper, the functions and tools of central banking in an Islamic framework are evaluated, and suggestions for adapting and revising the currently used tools of central banking for the Islamic central banking are made...

In the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, the UN Security Council passed a resolution targeting transnational sources of terrorist funds. At least one offshore Islamic bank was shut down, and American officials, ignorant about Islamic finance, viewed any “Islamic” bank with heightened suspicion. The Bush Administration targeted Al-Baraka in particular, confu...

The status of Islamic women varies in different Muslim countries, which interpret Islamic religion and law differently, especially with regard to their attitudes toward women. Most of these Islamic countries have specific beliefs about women and have restrictions concerning them. Gender stereotypes of Islamic women have their origin in the evolution of the Muslim religion. This is similar to th...

The rapid Arab-Islamic conquest during the early Middle Ages led to major political and cultural changes in the Mediterranean world. Although the early medieval Muslim presence in the Iberian Peninsula is now well documented, based in the evaluation of archeological and historical sources, the Muslim expansion in the area north of the Pyrenees has only been documented so far through textual sou...

Replacement of the traditional interest based credit system with an Islamic credit system was one of the fundamental changes in Iran since 1979. The Islamic credit system, offers the prospect of risk sharing between the borrower and the lender. Small farmers are likely to be risk averse and they are reluctant to go heavily into debt in order to finance investments in new technology and capital ...