By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi: Samajwadi Party general secretary and MP Amar Singh appeared in favor of opening the door to Islamic Banking in India. He was addressing a select gathering of intellectuals and economists at India Islamic Cultural Centre here on September 1.
Addressing the programme organized by Indian Centre for Islamic Finance, an outfit of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Amar Singh said he would meet Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in this regard.
Earlier addressing the gathering, director of the Centre, Abdur Raqueeb said while trillions of dollars in FDI are waiting for India giving green signal to Islamic banking, the government seemed to be unmoved for reasons they best knew. He said Islamic Banking system has been started in several Asian and European countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Thailand and England besides the United States. Post 9/11, he said, people in the Gulf region do not want to invest in the western countries. Given the economic growth in India, they want to invest in this country.
He said Islamic bonds will be a resolution to the kind of American subprime crisis. He said as the Islamic financial system is based on equity and justice, the economic disparity in the society will definitely recede. He said the Islamic financial system will be based on profit and loss, not on interest.
Those who spoke on the occasion included Samajwadi Party MP Shafiqur Rahman Burq, economists Rahmatullah Najmi and Dr Ausaf Ahmad and JIH secretary Ejaz Ahmad Aslam.