IslamicFinance.de

Al Rayan Bank has appointed Islamic Relief as its exclusive charity partner for 2017. The bank will work with Islamic Relief by supporting Sharia-compliant microfinance projects through fundraising activities. The projects will help people living in poverty to establish social enterprise businesses in their home countries and become financially independent. One of the projects is in Mali, West Africa. The project helps local women by making money available using the Islamic finance principle of Qard Hasan (loan without benefit). The women are then able to use the money to commercially harvest the nut of the African Shea tree and create Shea Butter, which they can then use to make various products. Seema Khan, head of major gifts at Islamic Relief UK, said the microfinance partnership with Al Rayan Bank is an intelligent solution to helping people around the world out of poverty.

UBS recently closed the bank account of Islamic Relief. Because of nervousness about counter-terrorist regulations, the charity organisation is under constant scrutiny by other banks. Incoming as well as outgoing transactions are stopped on a daily basis. It is yet not known whether this is a temporary measure or a permanent one. Since 9/11, Islamic Relief and other similar charities have been object of high scrutiny and had to explain themselves at every juncture.

Despite the initial high optimism after Ali Abdullah Saleh's fall from power, almost half of the country's population suffer from starvation, says the World Food Programme. The appeals for humanitarian help made by Oxfam and Islamic Relief to the UN resultet in a minor raise of funds. Still, instead of $38m, the UN has decided on only $586m. Suggested reasons for this reaction are lack of media coverage, associations with al-Qaida and lack of political sway as well as donor fatigue.

By organizing a one-day conference on Islamic finance and bringing together some of the
major players in the field of islamic and ethical finance , Islamic Relief-Italy, in collaboration
with ASSAIF, intends to share some reflections, case studies and initiatives in order
to contribute to solve the actual financial crisis. Thanks to a significant experience in
implementing development projects that are shari’a compliant , Islamic Relief represents
an interesting and successful example of Islamic finance initiatives that are born and
developed in Europe.The financial crisis which is nowadays afflicting most of the European countries has had

The financial crisis which is nowadays afflicting most of the European countries has had a significant impact on the real economy and on the society itself. Particularly, a growing
number of people are marginalized within the Italian society (not only migrants but also
the so called “new poors”) as well as within financial circuits and last but not least are
prevented from accessing credit. The Islamic finance, which is already operational in
several European countries, can provide solutions which are complementary to those