Tunisia's Islamic finance push has political echoes

Tunisia's ruling party has set to turning Tunisia into a regional centre for Sharia-compliant finance. However, critics claim that by putting scarce resources into the sector the economy could be harmed. People suspect that the leading motives of the governments initiatives are political rather than economic and that they mostly endeavour to win the support of voters. Even though change in policy might benefit the economy of Northern African countries after the Arab Spring by enabling access to a huge pool of Islamic investment funds from the Gulf, Tunisia faces serious political complications.