Is Islamic Banking Really Islamic? An Insider’s view with Harris Irfan

Muslims worldwide have come to the realisation that the prevailing capitalist economic system does not serve us ethically. With its interest-based banking and casino-style financial instruments, a devout believer has no choice but to attempt to escape its haram, even if that hinders the progress and prosperity of our daily lives. In recent years, Islamic finance has been touted as an ethical alternative. A way to escape the haram riba based economy. Some have even presented it as an alternative to financial capitalism. The rationale behind these products is to accommodate the detailed Shariah rulings on trade and many Islamic scholars have endorsed products that Western financial institutes and governments have embraced.

Our guest this week was an Islamic finance industry insider. Harris Irfan is currently the CEO of Cordoba Capital Markets https://www.ccmkts.com. He has 29 years of investment banking and consulting experience. He was the former co-founder of Deutsche Bank’s world-leading Islamic finance team and CEO of Deutsche’s Islamic finance subsidiary. He is the Former Global Head of Islamic Finance at Barclays, and then Head of Investment Banking for the Rasmala group. He is also the author of “Heaven’s Bankers: Inside the Hidden World of Islamic Finance”, the critically acclaimed best-seller about the Islamic finance industry.

The Thinking Muslim Podcast Episode 107

00:00 – Introduction
02:13 – The Makkah Clocktower
07:36 – Investment Banks Abuse
09:58 – Fractional Reserve Banking
13:48 – Halal Banks?
16:43 – But Buying a House?
20:43 – Regulatory Issues?
22:07 – Risk Sharing ?
28:15 – So How Do Muslims Invest?
31:10 – Islamic Scholars Wrong?
36:23 – Scholars Not Economists?
39:00 – The Doomsday Fatwa
44:46 – Makes Haram Halal
49:32 – Governments Passing Laws
51:53 – The Goals of the Shariah
57:50 – Capitalism
1:01:54 – What is Capitalism
1:07:05 – Erdogan and the Riba Trap
1:13:07 – Brics Currency & Dedolarisation?