Or maybe it’s your brother-in-law, boss, or auntie. At some point, you’ve heard the usual refrain, “Islamic finance just seems like conventional finance,” followed by their rationale.
If you’ve ever struggled for an answer, here it is:
“It’s true that Islamic finance is sometimes turned into something it’s not by banks claiming to be Islamic. But just as there are good Muslims and bad Muslims, there is good Islamic finance and bad Islamic finance. Bad Muslims don’t make Islam any less good. And bad Islamic finance doesn’t make Islamic finance any less good.
The main difference between interest-free finance and interest-based finance is that interest-free finance is based on buying, selling, renting, and partnering in real assets. And assets are not something that you can compound like cash. You can turn a $1,000 loan into a $10,000 loan using interest, but you can’t turn 1 house into 10 houses in Islamic finance. That’s the beauty of basing finance on real assets...”
At this point you can offer to forward them more information. We’ve found that an email can be non-confrontational:
If they prefer to watch or listen send them the "Why Islamic Finance?" video
If they prefer to read send them the "Why Islamic Financ?" script
