Don: Better knowledge of Islamic financing needed

KUALA LUMPUR: The lack of understanding of Islamic financing needs to be addressed so that people are not confused and misguided, says International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (Inceif) chief academic officer/dean Prof Datuk Dr Syed Othman Alhabshi.

He said even some employees who worked at Islamic banks couldn’t fully understand the concept of syariah-compliance.

“We need to address this matter so that everyone will fully understand and have a clear picture of Islamic finance,” he told a press conference yesterday.

Syed Othman Alhabshi

Syed Othman said as the world was currently facing a financial crisis, Islamic banking could be an alternative for the conventional banks to regenerate their business.

“I’m not saying that Islamic banking is the only solution for the current problems faced by the conventional banks. However, if this system can be a vehicle or a better solution to help them, why not,” he said.

Inceif, in a joint partnership with Britain’s University of Reading, is offering a 12-month masters course on investment banking and Islamic finance. The first intake, which commenced in September, is one of the steps taken to produce more experts in the field.

At the event yesterday, University of Reading director of the ICMA Centre Professor John Board said whatever banking system being used by the banks, at the end of the day, it was all about the attitude of the people.

“If people are greedy, whatever system you use would surely collapse as what we can see now from the global financial crisis,” he said, adding that if the Islamic banking system could become a good vehicle to uplift the financial industry by raising more capital to run businesses, there should be no objection to implementing the system.

Board said as more conventional banks wanted to offer Islamic banking and finance, it was important to educate the professionals in the banking line to master the system.

The Star