JEDDAH, 15 February 2006 — An international seminar on Islamic banking will be held in New Delhi on Feb. 18-19 to explore prospects of implementing the system in India. “Equity and Justice: the Message of Islamic Banking” is its main theme.
Prominent Islamic economists including King Faisal Award winners Dr. Nejatullah Siddiqui of India, Professor Khursheed Ahmed of Pakistan and Umer Chapra of Saudi Arabia as well as Ismail Sharief of Malaysia, and Dr. Mundir Kahf of the USA will attend the seminar.
“The seminar seeks to bring into focus the possibilities of Islamic finance in India and highlighting its potentials,” said F.R. Faridi, chairman of the organizing committee and president of Indian Association for Islamic Economics (IAIE).
The seminar, organized by Jamaat-e-Islami, a leading Islamic organization, comes in the backdrop of a decision taken by the Indian Finance Ministry to study prospects of implementing Islamic banking in the country.
“Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had spoken high of the Islamic banking system when he was the finance minister,” Faridi pointed out. “Manmohan Singh was of the opinion that if Indian Muslims want an interest-free banking, efforts should be made to realize their desire. This means he is not against following Islamic principles in banking transactions,” Faridi said.
Faridi urged Indian Muslims to stand united in the call for implementing Islamic banking in the country. “It can indeed provide an ethically clean and social-oriented avenue for investment and finance to all Indians,” he pointed out.
Dr. Faridi said Islamic banking was designed to reorient banking system to address the unjust and iniquitous allocation and distribution of financial resources and establish justice.
“Unfortunately, this capacity of Islamic banking to help create a society with fair distribution and less inequality is yet to be demonstrated in practice. The reason lies in capitalist profit-oriented financial system dominating the scene,” he said.
Faridi favored establishment of fully-fledged Islamic banks and called Islamic banking counters at traditional banks as some kind of a cheating. “Muslims have the necessary manpower and financial resources to implement Islamic banking. What they lack is determination,” he insisted.
