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.

Sukuks – The emerging trend in Islamic Finance Suresh R. I. Perera, LLB, Attorney – at – Law Director Tax & Regulatory, KPMG Ford Rhodes Thornton & Co.

Introduction Are you a finance or capital markets specialist ? Then you must be familiar with the latest trend in the capital markets! It’s Sukuk ! Well if you are not, you need to be concerned !. We Sri Lankans, in a small island in the Indian Ocean, recently read in the daily papers about the first Sukuk being structured …

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SUKUK – Some Basic Facts

Sukuk is a form of Shari’ah-compliant securitization which is gaining wide acceptance not only in Muslim states, but also in largely non-Muslim countries where it is seen as a very promising instrument to mobilize funds for economic development by government or public-related institutions. Sukuk could be said to have evolved due to the needs of Islamic Banks and Financial institutions …

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Going against the Grain Capitalism in the wake of a New Order By Roshan Madawela –

Harsh words against the development of Shari’ah compliant financing has not faded despite the deeply ingrained flaws in the world’s dominant capitalist system which is coming apart at the seams like a cricket ball that has been knocked around for too many sixes.  Nevertheless, politically motivated censure of the Shari’ah financing sector goes on and on.  Predictably, much of the …

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The Nature of Paper Money – Some history and observations, by A.L.M. Abdul Gafoor – Appropriate Technology Foundation Groningen, The Netherlands

Gold and money From time immemorial gold was money.  Valuable goods were priced in terms of gold: this product is worth so many ounces of gold.  But assessing the fineness of the metal and weighing it each time a transaction took place was a tedious and wasteful exercise.  This led to the invention of the gold coin.  Mints which produced …

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The Subtle Nature of Riba, – by MOHAMMED ROBBANI – INSIF The Institute of Islamic Finance London

It is a common practice to equate the English word ‘Interest’ with the ancient Arabic word ‘Riba’. However, this simple correlation disregards the subtle nature of Riba… THE TERMS ‘INTEREST’ AND ‘RIBA’ ARE NOT ENTIRELY SYNONYMOUS The meaning & definition of Interest appropriate for our purposes is the one in common use, which happens to be a “surcharge on the …

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