IMF Endorses Islamic Finance, Warns it Must be Implemented Better...
(Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund has endorsed the principles of Islamic finance, saying it could prove safer than conventional finance, but the multilateral lender warned Islamic bankers that they must tighten rules and follow them more consistently. A report released by the IMF this week showed the lender’s growing interest in Islamic banking, which is expanding in much of the world. Last October, the IMF launched discussions with an external advisory group of Islamic finance experts and industry bodies. The IMF’s report noted that because Islamic banking forbids pure monetary speculation and stresses that deals should be based on real economic activity, it could pose less risk than conventional banking to the stability of financial systems. This...
Boxing Champ Launches Sports Hijab
A boxing champion from the East End has created a sports hijab to help more Muslim women get into combat sports. Ruqsana Begum (below) – who is the current British female Atomweight Muay Thai boxing champion – runs personal training sessions and women-only sessions in the sport at the Osmani Centre in Whitechapel. She said: “I came up with the idea during the Olympics. I was interested in the story of an American athlete who was told she couldn’t compete wearing her hijab due to health and safety reasons, so her father created one that was approved for her to fight in. “I thought if they can create one for the elite athletes, why not for regular women...
Norway’s Muslims Form Protective Human Ring Around Oslo’s Synagogue...
OSLO, Feb 21 (Reuters) – More than 1000 Muslims formed a human shield around Oslo’s synagogue on Saturday, offering symbolic protection for the city’s Jewish community and condemning an attack on a synagogue in neighboring Denmark last weekend. Chanting “No to anti-Semitism, no to Islamophobia,” Norway’s Muslims formed what they called a ring of peace a week after Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein, a Danish-born son of Palestinian immigrants, killed two people at a synagogue and an event promoting free speech in Copenhagen last weekend. “Humanity is one and we are here to demonstrate that,” Zeeshan Abdullah, one of the protest’s organizers told a crowd of Muslim immigrants and ethnic Norwegians who filled the small street around Oslo’s only...
MuslimGirl Founder Says Islam Is Feminist...
NEW YORK (WOMENSENEWS)–At only 22 years old, Amani al-Khatahtbeh is the editor in chief of her own online publication, MuslimGirl.net. The magazine “was launched from the bedroom of a high school girl that was fed up with the misleading misconceptions surrounding Islam,” reads the website. A New Jersey native, al-Khatahtbeh now lives in Washington, D.C., where she is a media relations specialist at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. She describes herself as “a human and civil rights activist and public speaker.” Her areas of focus include media, race, gender and politics. This interview, for Women’s History Month, is part of a series that taps activists from the 1960s through today to showcase the diversity of those involved. It was...
First Islamic Museum in Australia Launches in Melbourne...
MELBOURNE // A delegation from the UAE Government was on hand in Melbourne for the opening of Australia’s first Islamic museum on Friday. The evening marked the end of a four-year journey to build the museum by founders Moustafa and Maysaa Fahour, an Australian couple living in Dubai. The A$10 million (Dh32.8m) Islamic Museum of Australia in the suburb of Thornbury was declared open by Australian treasurer Joe Hockey. Also in attendance was Bader Al Hilali from the office of Ali Al Hashimi, the religious and judicial adviser at the Ministry of Presidential Affairs. “The support that we have tonight is phenomenal,” said Mr Fahour. “I heard a comment today where someone said that we as Australian Muslims...
Can Islamic Finance Feed a Sustainable Economic System?...
Is your mortgage halal? How about your pension? Islamic finance has been a significant global force for the past few decades, but in recent years sharia-compliant saving and investing have become more common in the United States. For example, in June, Goldman Sachs provided a loan to Arcapita Bank, an Islamic investment company, that in compliance with sharia law did not charge interest. In July, a US-based trade association, the World Council of Credit Unions, published a manual explaining to would-be community financiers in developing countries how to operate sharia-compliant credit unions. Western discussions of sharia law often focus on extremist groups imposing brutal interpretations of these legal codes on unwilling populations. But sharia law, which derives from the Qur’an and the religious teaching...
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