ISLAMIC FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS UNSCATHED DESPITE ECONOMIC TURMOIL

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 15 (Bernama) -- Islamic financial institutions have survived unscathed amid the economic turmoil in the conventional financial instruments and practices, says the founder of Yayasan MENDAKI, Sidek Saniff.

"The primary reason for this is that our acts are in accordance with the
teachings in both the Al-Quran and the Hadith as taught by the Prophet," he said
when tabling a working paper at the Third Islamic Economic Congress.

Sidek said this should strengthen the Islamic financial institutions,
including Islamic Banking and Islamic investments, and the general employment of
technologies to support Islamic economic activities.

He noted that the world had experienced socialism and capitalism and should
consider to shift to the Islamic Economic System.

"In the midst of the global economic turmoil, our Islamic economic systems
such as the Islamic banking and even Ar-Rahnu (Islamic pawnbroking) had gone
mostly unscathed, unaffected by these turmoil, perhaps it forces us to ponder if
the Islamic Economic Systems of finance and banking are perhaps the solutions
needed to rectify and stabilise the world's economies today," he added.

Yayasan MENDAKI, Council for the Education of Islamic Children, Singapore,
is a self-help group in Singapore that dedicates to the empowerment of the
disadvantaged through excellence in education.

The foundation was set up by the Malay/Muslim community leaders in
partnership with the Singapore government.