Welcome wa salam 'alaykum!

This new blog is meant to fill what we (Ishtirak) think is a much needed space in the current discussion of Islamic banking and finance. We've been thinking quite a bit over the last few years about Islamic finance and banking - not only how it's grown, but also where it's going. This is partly due to recent work for customers such as Frito Lay, IBM, the Grameen-Jameel foundation, and The Institute for the Future. But it's also partly because we'd like to stimulate a more direct conversation with a larger audience of stakeholders interested in the subject.

It's written for a wide, thoughtful audience. There is no shortage of quite technical treatments of Islamic banking and finance in a variety of languages, dealing with everything from the vagaries of Islamic law and practice to derivative strategies of particular instruments. While we will dig into these issues from time to time (because they are both important and interesting), we are neither clerics nor bankers ourselves. What we do bring besides our backgrounds in development economics, economic history, social networks, technology and anthropology is both deep experience in the broader Islamic world and interest in the currents of thought among the wide diversity of the Muslim community. We read/speak the languages, having lived in various parts of the Islamic world for extended periods. We've also spent significant time studying Islamic legal traditions, and specifically the ways in which these relate to how interpretation into financial instruments and practices affects outcomes and lives. But we don't claim to have all (or even very many of) the answers. This blog is meant to be an intelligent conversation, not a podium.

It's written to take the past into account to help us understand both the present state and future direction of Islamic banking and finance. Too often, we forget how powerful historical narratives are in constructing and manipulating our present realities. So too in the domain of Islamic financial institutions and law. We believe it's important to understand the framework of thought surrounding current debates, and the links of those debates to the past.

It's written to address some larger themes in Islamic thought and how what we see happening in Islamic banking and finance connects to important broader currents. For instance, commodity-driven wealth has created demand among a variety of Middle Eastern countries for greater integration into world markets and sectoral diversification, sparking a vibrant discussion about how to fit Islamic legal requirements into international law. It has also driven not only economic competition, but also a kind of competition in the moral economy as Muslim intellectuals and authorities from different legal and cultural traditions (for instance) debate orthodoxy and orthopraxy. There is a little-recognized and underappreciated series of conversations happening within the Muslim world that are both fascinating and crucial to the future of these countries (and, perhaps, for Islam itself), some of which stem from what's happening in financial markets. Engaging these debates thoughtfully can not only help us better understand how the public sphere is shifting in the Islamic world but also help us all (whether we're Muslim or not) recognize where risks and opportunities lie.

Finally, it's written (mostly) from the United States. Oddly, or perhaps not so oddly, the United States banking industry and multinationals have basically ignored this sector of the global financial market and lost out to competitors from London to Europe to Dubai. There are comparatively few established Islamic finance authorities in the US. The number of Shari'a-compliant products and offerings in the US remains sparse indeed. And yet market opportunities exist both domestically and globally, particularly at a time when the US economy is in recession. We hope to address some of these issues for and with our colleagues in the US, from the banking sector to consumer goods to extractive industries. At the same time, we also hope to influence and enrich debates within the US government and its private sector parters regarding foreign policy and economic development.

Very best wa ma' salama,
David, Ethan, and Jody