The Summit Meeting on “Presenting a Definition of Islamic Banking, Challenges and Obstacles”
The meeting on " Presenting a Definition of Islamic Banking, Challenges and Obstacles," was held at the International Association of Muslim University Professors, on Saturday 17th of August 2019, with a lecture by Dr. Abdulkarim Taras Cherniyenko, economics lecturer and ex-chairman of St. Petersburg Council for Interreligious and International Affairs.
In this meeting, Dr. Tavakoli, Director of the Assembly's Theology Department, and Dr. Namazizadeh, Director of the Assembly's Department of Education, expressed their views on Islamic banking and its challenges and issues. Then Dr. Taras began his lecture.
He initially said that the task of Muslims, and especially of Shiites, is to counteract the Western doctrines that imperialist and Zionist states are proposing to colonize Islamic countries, using Islamic teachings in the field of economics. This is because nowadays "economic wars are more common than military wars".
“The role and importance of economics in sustaining a country's political system is just like the role of blood in the human body" said Dr. Taras. "If the economy of one country is in line with the economy of the imperialist countries, then that country will no longer be independent."
He added: "The purpose of interest-based banks are to make one-way profit for the bank, and the profit and loss of the customers is not important to them. Even if the customer fails in their business plan, it is better for them. For this reason, non-Islamic bank customers are decreasing in the UK and Islamic-banking customers are on the increase. More than 80 percent of the Islamic-banking executives in the UK are non-Muslims and more than 90 percent of their clients are also non-Muslim. Islamic banks scrutinize the customer's business plan to ensure its success, and are eventually partners in profits and losses."
Talking about the obstacles and challenges of Islamic banking, Dr. Taras said: "The first obstacle is the lack of real money in today's economy, where there is instead illusive money and economy in practice. The second obstacle is the dependence of the banking system of all countries on the international interest-based banking system. The third obstacle is social; citizens are not prepared to work with the Islamic banking system. Therefore, it is important that we prepare the people mentally and rationally. "
He concluded: "The Shiites are the elite of the Islamic community and the Islamic Republic is expected to engage in a stronger manner on the issue of Islamic banking."
The end of the session was devoted to a questions and answers session, and then the session ended.
