Policy Recommendations from the ICR 3.4 (July 2012)

Mohammad Hashim Kamali, Ethics and Finance: Perspectives of the Sharī‘ah and Its Higher Objectives (Maqāṣid)

• Integrate the maqāṣid al-sharī‘ah in the operative rules of Islamic banking and finance (IBF);
• Promote a self-critical and evaluative approach to Islamic banking and finance, which should open fresh avenues of enhancing ethical and social justice dimensions of the industry;
• Ethical concerns and credibility factors require that IBF should develop more vigilance in order to reduce imitation and match-making of the conventional banking modalities and products.

Osman Bakar, The Identity Crisis of the Contemporary Muslim Ummah: The Loss of Tawhidic Epistemology as Its Root Cause

• More studies be done on the epistemological dimension of the ummah’s knowledge-crisis in modern times and the implications of this crisis for the ummah’s identity with the view of securing a better comparative understanding of Islamic and modern Western knowledge-cultures;
• An ummatic agenda on the rediscovery and recovery of Islam’s tawhidic epistemology be concertedly pursued by Muslim scholars and research centres, particularly in the universities;
• Academic policy makers for higher education in Muslim communities pay serious attention to the issue of application of tawhidic epistemology in contemporary Muslim education at all levels of learning, particularly through curriculum reforms.

Karim D. Crow, In Search of ‘Islamic Lifestyle’

• Muslims and their leaders carefully appraise and reflect upon consumption patterns in their society, in order to understand potential benefits, risks, and harms unfolding in their midst;
• They must consciously awaken a living concern with Islamic resources when responding to the pressures of consumption and increased affluence;
• They should design procedures and methods which may nurture more restrained and self-critical lifestyle choices within the prevailing consumerist environment.

Abdul Karim Abdullah, Understanding the Causes of the Debt-Crisis: Interest-Based Financing

• It would be time to phase out interest-based financing, for example by permitting businesses to sell their products directly to consumers on a deferred basis;
• It is necessary to enable consumers to purchase items on an installment basis, while ensuring that the credit price is the same as the spot price in order to avoid ribā;
• Microfinance should be promoted with incentives, such as tax advantages.

Eric Winkel, Views of Science and their Implications for Muslim Higher Education

• European science with its technological success has to be placed within an overarching context anchored in the two worlds of the Qur’ān: our consciousness of physical existence and corporeal phenomena, and the immaterial unquantifiable dimension of human experience;
• A re-reading of qur’ānic passages through the lens of great Islamic exponents will help expand the minds and hearts of students in the laboratory and classroom;
• The narrative of modernity as inevitable, irreversible, and teleological needs to be challenged by demonstrating the integrity of sciences and technologies.

Teoman Duman, The Value of Islamic Tourism: Perspectives from the Turkish Experience

• “Islamically acceptable” motivations should be taken as the reference point for a definition of Islamic tourism;
• The term ḥalāl should be used to describe the economy and the sector where ḥalāl goods and services are offered to the markets;
• Islam and tourism are multidisciplinary areas. Therefore, a joint effort is needed to deepen the discussion on Islam and tourism.

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