ABSTRACT
In November 2008, the US Treasury Department announced that it would convene an ‘Islamic Finance 101’ Forum to teach Islamic Finance to US banking regulatory agencies, Congress and other parts of the executive branch in Washington, DC. Islamic finance is concentrated in the Middle East and South-East Asia (predominately Indonesia and Malaysia) but is spreading into North Africa and Europe. It is regulated by the Islamic Financial Services Board, an international standard-setting body which ‘promotes and enhances the soundness and stability of the Islamic financial services industry by issuing global prudential standards and guiding principles for the industry’. The turmoil in global financial markets since mid-2008 has raised serious questions about prudential lending and borrowing practices, risk management and corporate governance. The growth of Islamic finance therefore raises challenging questions about the accountability of those who have greater power in interpreting religious texts and their contemporary spiritual implications.
