ISLAMIC FINANCE - The many faces of Islamic finance

The mention of Islamic finance conjures up a range of responses. There are those who believe it is one of the fastest-growing areas of international finance, with hundreds of billions of dollars in investible assets and peerless growth rates – even that it can change the world. There are others who think it is inherently flawed and irrelevant; still more who seem to think the very expression is synonymous with money laundering and worse. But recent deals and the establishment of international institutions may bring consistency of opinion to this much-misunderstood field. By Matthew Montagu-Pollock in Malaysia and Chris Wright in the Gulf.