Dear Ethica,
I'd like to start off by appreciating the efforts and initiatives that Ethica is taking to educate the masses about Islamic finance. The topics are interesting, many of which I can personally relate to as well. There is a huge need for everyone to make an effort to promote awareness about what Islamic finance really is. I am a firm believer in its potential.
Unfortunately, I am very disheartened to discover the reality of things in the Islamic finance industry. I work in one of the major local Islamic banks in the UAE and am pained to see that the employees do not appreciate or understand the differences between conventional and Islamic finance even at the senior executive levels. Many times I try to defend and present Islamic finance as it really is from what I have learnt from Ethica but alas I’m no expert.
I was recently offered a job in another local bank which has an Islamic banking window and was being offered 40% more than my current salary which I was very tempted to take but I declined the offer as I would have to deal with both conventional and Islamic finance applications. I was told they don’t have a separate fund source for salary pay outs either — it would come from a common pool of conventional and Islamic funds. This surprised me and made me wonder about the source of income for the bank’s Shariah board.
All this is very upsetting. The current face of Islamic banking is quite a joke — here I am working at an Islamic bank with very few efforts made by it to educate its staff or those working at Islamic windows. It makes me wonder whether there is really anyone out there who even cares about all of this.
I am glad to see Ethica making efforts in the right direction. May Allah make it easy for Ethica to reach out to even more people and institutions.
Muniruddin Naseeruddin
Dubai, UAE
