BLUE SWEDE
Hooked on a Feeling
Sharia banking continues to spread. Wednesday sees the start of Sweden’s first Shariah Islamic investment fund. The fund follows Islamic criteria and includes 110 international companies who may not deal with weapons, finance, pornography or alcohol. Other Swedish banks are planning services for Moslem customers.
Claes Hemberg of Avanza Bank says that their customers have been asking for a Sharia fund for a long time. The Dow Jones Islamic market index was started ten years ago and it was only a matter of time until Sharia funds came to Sweden.
As I've mentioned in the past, the only real hard part of converting a traditional investment instrument into a sharia compliant vehicle, is to convert any interest payment streams into a fixed fee and it works. From there it's a matter of picking what will and won't be included as underlying securities or what types of businesses will be loaned money and which ones won't. In that way, it could become a legal way to discriminate against other people, religions, etc.~ 3 WOOD
