I was reading Socialism’s Ignored Success: Iranian Islamic Socialism by Ramin Mazaheri, and they mentioned something that has become a common sight here too: Islamic finance.
Iran is leading in Islamic financing, with Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, the UAE and Qatar filling the rest of the Top 5 according to this report.
For those who don’t know, it’s basically finance but with Islamic principles as accorded to the Quran and various Madhhabs (schools of jurisprudence).
Some of it’s principles are (quoting Wikipedia), among others:
- Paying or charging interest. “All forms of interest are riba and hence prohibited”. Islamic rules on transactions (known as Fiqh al-Muamalat) have been created to prevent use of interest.
- Investing in businesses involved in activities that are forbidden (haraam). These include things such as selling alcohol or pork, or producing media such as gossip columns or pornography.
- Charging extra for late payment. This applies to murâbaḥah or other fixed payment financing transactions, although some authors believe late fees may be charged if they are donated to charity,or if the buyer has “deliberately refused” to make a payment.
Has any comrades read much on this?
How viable do you think is such a financial system, especially now, with renewed interest in de-dollarisation? (see what I did there?)
Can it fully live up to it’s socialistic principles in a world capitalist system?