Challenges faced (Cultural, perceptional and religious perspective ) Research Paper

Challenges faced (Cultural, perceptional and religious perspective ) and acceptance of Islamic Finance in western (Non Islamic C - Research Paper Example Also discussed is the concern over Islamic finance allegedly supporting terrorism, and why some western countries equate Islamic finance with supporting terrorism. Some implications are highlighted and recommendations are then made based on the research as to how to deal with such issues and overcome the barriers to making Islamic finance more acceptable in Western countries. Although most Islamic banks are concentrated in Muslim countries, they are also to be found in many non-Muslim countries, especially in Europe and the U.S.). In addition, some conventional banks have also begun to offer Islamic financing schemes such as the HSBC Amanah division of HSBC Group established in 1998. Also, although several studies have been conducted on attitudes towards Islamic banking and the patronization of Islamic banks with reference to IFIs located in Muslim countries, some studies, albeit very few have also been conducted to gather the views and preferences of Western customers. A selection o f these IFIs located in Western countries is also the focus of attention and the few studies referred to above are mentioned. General perceptions of Islamic finance It proved to be difficult to ascertain the perceptions of Westerners towards Islamic finance due to a lack of studies in this area. Most studies have examined customers from Muslim and other developing countries. To give an example of one significant study, Erol & El-Bdour (1989) studied attitudes towards Islamic banking in Jordan. They used a nine-part question/statement instrument and showed that religious motivation was not such an important factor as a fast and efficient service, reputation and image, and confidentiality. Nonetheless, a general awareness of Islamic banks and their methods was evident. Sudin et al. (1994) conducted a more extensive study among both Muslims and non-Muslims in Malaysia. The three most important criteria for non-Muslims were firstly, friendliness of staff, secondly a fast and efficient s ervice, and thirdly the bank’s image and reputation. Another study on Malaysian customers showed that although most of them did not have a complete understanding of Islamic financial products, they did not differentiate between products from Islamic and conventional banks (Hamid & Nordin, 2001). In another study, Gerrard & Cunningham (1997) surveyed the attitude towards Islamic banking among Singaporeans where Muslims are in a minority. It was found that non-Muslims were generally lacking in awareness of Islamic banking. Furthermore, whereas Muslims were mainly motivated by religious reasons besides profitability, and had little interest in getting a high interest rate on savings, it was the opposite situation for non-Muslims. It is a similar situation in Turkey (Okumus, 2005). Even in non-Muslim countries like India where Muslims form a significant proportion of the country’s population, awareness of IFIs was low at the turn of the present century (Munawar & Llewellyn , 2002: 188). Less than half of the 720 persons interviewed knew that they even existed. This general finding of non-Muslims being more motivated by reasons other than religious ones could be the case in Western countries as well among non-Muslims that do use Islamic finance. However, during the past decade there has probably been an increasing awareness