سويسرا: مؤتمر اقتصادي يشيد بالنظم المالية الإسلامية

أشاد الخبراء الاقتصاديون المشاركون في أحد المؤتمرات الاقتصادية التي عُقدت بمدينة "لوسرن" السويسرية بالنظم المالية الإسلامية، مؤكدين أنها قد استطاعت الثبات في وجه الأزمة العالمية التي أثرت على النظم المالية الغربية بصورة كبيرة.

وقد أكد بعض الخبراء أن هناك مزيد من الجهود يجب أن تُبذل من أجل تضييق الفجوة بين نمطي النظم الاقتصادية الإسلامية والغربية، إضافة إلى ضرورة تعديل اللوائح ونظم الضرائب وبيان المواقف الشرعية من المعاملات المختلفة؛ للتمكن من تقديم النظام الاقتصادي الإسلامي للسوق المالي.

الخبر من مصدره الأصلي:

Despite proving more resilient to the financial crisis than conventional markets, Islamic finance is struggling to reach its full potential, a conference has heard.

Experts gathered in Lucerne last week agreed that much work still has to be done to bridge the gap between the fledgling Islamic financial sector and Western markets. One Swiss expert said the terms Islamic and sharia were hindering the process.

Until recently, there did not appear to be a particularly compelling case for Islamic banking and insurance services for non-Muslim clients. But the out-performance of Islamic products against conventional markets during the financial crash has generated more interest.

“The failure of toxic products [including mortgage-backed securities] during the financial crisis has allowed Islamic finance to gain momentum,” Marc Chesney of Zurich University’s Swiss Banking Institute told the conference on Friday.

Many investments in Islamic finance did take a tumble during the crises years of 2008 and 2009. But sharia laws, which both forbid speculation and demand that all parties share risk as well as profit, stripped out most of the more dangerous toxic products from client’s portfolios.

Such a product might be expected to appeal to many investors who were burned during the crisis or who are now outraged at bankers’ bonuses and perceived greed.

Terminology problem

But Fares Mourad, head of Islamic finance at the Swiss bank Sarasin, pointed out that the marketing of this product has so far won few converts in the Western world. “The terms ‘Islamic’ and ‘sharia’ have helped it develop and reach this stage, but it is now hindering the next stage of reaching Western clients,” he told swissinfo.ch.

Recent moves to ban minarets in Switzerland or the wearing of religious headscarves in France, hardly point to a climate willing to accept a form of finance based on Islamic sharia law, the conference heard.

In addition, the introduction of Islamic finance would also require an overhaul of tax laws and regulations.