Afkham Azeez

I am a committer & Project Management Committee (PMC) member of the Apache Web Services project. I work as a software architect at WSO2 and am the Product Manager of WSO2 Web Services Application Server (WSAS). I also lead the WSO2 Carbon framework project. My areas of interest include distributed computing, SOA, Highly Available & Highly Scalable applications & J2EE technologies. My current research area is cloud computing and am currently trying to make Web services autoscale on Amazon EC2. I am the author of the clustering implementation for Apache Axis2. I hold a B.Sc. first class honors degree in Computer Science & Engineering from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, and am currently reading for a Masters Degree in Computer Science specializing in Software Architecture.

Clean finance for ‘green funds’, – by Roshan Madawela

Running parallel with the rapid growth in halal banking in recent times has been an equally swift increase in awareness on climate change and its impending consequences. Whilst the goals of ethical financing that is Shari’ah compliant and efforts to shift development and economic growth onto a more environmentally friendly path are compatible, sufficient collaboration is yet to take place.  …

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Subprime Mortgage Crisis and Islamic Finance By MKV Nair – Researcher, Monash University Malaysia

Introduction The subprime mortgage crisis, popularly known as the “mortgage mess” or “mortgage meltdown”, came to the world’s attention when a surge in US home foreclosures (repossessions) started in 2006 and spiralled seemingly out of control in 2007 and 2008. It triggered a national financial crisis that went global within two years. It has caused billions of dollars losses to …

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Islam, Poverty and Micro Finance “Best Practices” Dr. Mohammed Obaidullah

How does one go about reducing poverty levels and providing micro finance (MF) in Muslim societies? How does one make a choice between the Islamic model of MF and the MF "best practices" that reflect wisdom and lessons learnt from decades of "real-life" MF experiments. The former is normative and largely an untested proposition in the context of a modern …

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Takaful- Its Origins, Definition, Justification and Present Status By Capt. Jamil Akhtar Khan

Capt.Jamil Akhtar Khan is the CEO of Takaful Pakistan. With a background in the Merchant Navy, Capt.Jamil commanded vessels of the national flag carrier PNFC before switching over to insurance. Before joining Takaful Pakistan he served with New Jubilee Insurance where his interest in Takaful was evoked. He is regarded as a pioneer in the introduction of Takaful to Pakistan, …

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IJARA – A more compassionate form of Leasing Suresh R. I. Perera LLB, Attorney at Law, ACMA Director Tax & Regulatory KPMG Sri Lanka

The nature of Ijara The literal meaning of Ijarah is “to give something on rent”. As per Islamic jurisprudence the term connotes two distinct situations. 1)  The services of human beings for wages –  the “Musta’jir”(employer) employing the services of an “Ajir” (employee) on wages  or “Ujrah”  in lieu of hired services. An “Ajir” for this purpose could be anyone …

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Global Sukuk Market – by By Faisal Hasan, Head of Research – Global Investment House, Kuwait

Fast attracting Muslims & non-Muslims alike…. The global Islamic financial sector has witnessed an encouraging growth over the last decade and is currently estimated to be at around US$1trillion. It is predicted to be the world’s fastest-growing financial sector for the coming years with an estimated global potential of US$4trillion. Sukuks have turned out to be an important driver to …

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