What is described at the Link is a terribly wrong-headed policy by the British government. Rather than increasing the “inclusion” of Muslims in British society and culture, Shariah-Compliant Finance is liable to increase the isolation of Muslims from the rest of Britain.
Government Seen Helping Islamic Finance
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: KUALA LUMPUR: Islamic banking is set to rise from its modest 2 percent share of bank assets as the government encourages growth and Muslims overcome their suspicion, sharia lender Gatehouse Bank said on Tuesday.
Islamic finance, which rejects interest-based lending and speculation in favour of profit and loss sharing between venture partners, has been in Britain since the 1970s, but only a small number of Muslims have embraced it.
In recent years, Britain has been viewed as the European leader in providing Islamic financial services, aiming to serve both domestic Muslim markets as well as tapping into the vast wealth of Gulf investors.
“The government is very keen on social inclusion and economic inclusion and it feels that still there are areas of the UK where there’s not enough economic inclusion,” Gatehouse Chairman Richard Thomas told reporters on the sidelines of an Islamic finance forum in Malaysia.
“So they feel that if they open up alternative finance such as Islamic finance then that will allow people to be included in the British economy in a way they weren’t before.”
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http://shrewdeconomist.blogspot.com/2008/11/government-seen-helping-islamic-finance.html
