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spreading and consolidation of Shi'ism. Thus, conditions have been created for organizing frontal clashes of big local armed units, as well as whole states coming out under the banner of Sunnism, on the one hand, and Shi'ism, on the other. This circumstance has provided broader opportunities for the procolonial interference of world powers in the life of the Middle East. The major arenas for such political armed clashes called confessional or intra-Muslim, were in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya.
The author concludes that international strategic contradictions and collisions connected with the Middle East have been determined by the political interests of the ruling circles of the local states, and also foreign state. However, the important inciter of intra- and interstate conflicts was the Muslim confessional factor, which now plays the major role in international relations in the Middle East. Besides, in some Arab countries, where military hostilities are taking place between pro-Sunna and pro-Shia forces, an active role belongs to armed groups and individuals from other countries which are far from the Middle East.
Author of the abstract - Natalia Ginesina
2018.04.010. ALEXANDER FILONIK. THE ISLAMIC FINANCIAL INDUSTRY AND MODERN CHALLENGES // "Aziya i Afrika Segodnya," Moscow, 2016, № 8, P. 31-37.
Keywords: Islamic banking, Islamic financial industry, financial business, assets, conventional banks, micro-financing, challenges.
Alexander Filonik,
PhD(Economics),
Institute of Oriental Studies, RAS
The researcher notes that Islamic banks operate softer than classical ones, which is especially important now, when extreme
manifestations of instability in the Arab East complicate the situation in the markets. Islamic banks are in a better position, actively operating in the economy of Arabian oil exporters and beyond. They are focused on the distance from the problematic Arab States and are not subject to the randomness of the non-economic order.
It was here that they earned the trust of a reliable business partner and formed an organic element of the financial system that ensured the stability of investment, trade and credit operations after the oil price revolution in the mid-1970s. The financial power of the Arabian holders of foreign exchange resources has changed the situation. Their interests collided with foreign capital, and the internal structure of banking and financial activities in the region began to change, spurred by the dynamics of the globalization process.
Islamic banks are counting on advantages in their countries not only because they successfully entered into a highly competitive environment. They are psychologically more comfortable for Muslim clients. And besides, follow the Islamic tradition of social justice. The rise of national consciousness was a factor that contributed to the final institutionalization of the idea of Islamic banking. It has been realized in a large Arabian project and has accumulated enough strength to compete with conventional credit and financial brands in the zones of settlement of the Muslim diaspora.
The transformation of Arab capital into Islamic capital can be viewed as a collective Arab response to the global claims of Western capital, to a certain extent, which should be put ideological and economic barriers. This moment fits into the scheme of relations of a part of the Arab intellectual elite to globalization, the concept of which cannot appeal to the Arab public consciousness, especially since it reinforces the dependence of the Arab-Muslim world on external influence. Islamic banks have found a worthy place in global finance and have formed an influential niche, which they are improving with a view to further expansion. Ordinary banks in
Arab countries did not degenerate and only limited themselves in some cases to Islamic branches.
A significant drawback that can reduce the popularity of Islamic banking among non-Muslim clients and restrain its role in modern credit and banking operations is seen in a certain archaization of commodity-money payments. It lies in the fact that it can cause associations with the medieval foreign cultural era. Gentiles often do not take into account that the terminology is more intended to set off the national identity of the credit and financial system in its traditional form. But isolation is emphasized deliberately, and it raises a moral barrier, behind which lies the danger of unforeseen risks for foreign customers.
The "Islamic economy" (or the financial block in fact) is developing at a rather rapid pace. Its total assets were estimated at $ 2 trillion at the end of the first decade of the new century. According to forecasts, total funds may already reach $ 3,4 trillion by 2020, which should serve as proof of the dynamic process. Islamic finance gave strong evidence of active growth. It seems that all branches of the economy in the monarchies of the Persian Gulf are permeated with connections with Islamic institutions, one way or another, and work only with their support. During the crisis years, this sector suffered the most, being carried away by speculation and real estate transactions. Nevertheless, the Islamic financial business does not reveal any special signs of anxiety, as it was possible to believe in its "unsinkability" in the crisis years 2008-2009. The "Arab Spring" and the events that followed did not cause any noticeable changes in the financial position of the monarchies either. The authorities have invested $ 1,5 billion in possible zones of increasing social tension and have prevented mass demonstrations. Otherwise, Islamic banks could suffer, being an integral part and, in a certain sense, the face of the financial system of the oil-exporting countries of the Gulf.
Islamic financial capital remains at the same positions in the Arabian economy, participating actively in savings and services in
all types of economic activity, while remaining an attractive area for investing capital.
The attractiveness of Islamic money as an object of professional activity creates not so much competition as the temptation to ignore the rules when making transactions to accelerate them. Such frequent occurrences become a serious challenge, undermining the trust of customers in the system. However, Islamic economists are not so much worried about how often banks bypass the requirements of the system, as they wonder why this phenomenon has become regular. In some cases, operations are carried out arbitrarily, limited to formalities that create the appearance of mandatory procedures. The approach, devoid of unification, has led to the emergence of a variety of techniques that give rise to discrepancies and inaccuracies in the most important issue of determining the nature of traded goods and establishing Sharia purity of transactions. The leadership of the Islamic banking industry requires focusing not only on growth rates, but also on related legal procedures.
Islamic banks have established themselves as a phenomenon that took place, although not in all aspects equally advanced and ready to work adequately at any sites. Moreover, the authorities' desire is felt to bring them up to standard, improving their management and the entire economic system as a condition for bringing the Islamic business into the spaces of the Muslim world and beyond. The Global Islamic Microfinance Forum, held in mid-2014 in Dubai, was deliberately focused on the effectiveness of the use of financial resources in the field of small business. The current situation is practically a challenge to the Islamic finance system, which demonstrates insufficient attention to promising areas of capital investment. Islamic microfinance, as well as conventional microfinance, has not received a noticeable spread in the Arab world. In general, only a quarter of the population of Muslim-majority countries has access to the official financial services market. According to the statistics of 2008, the inhabitants of Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria accounted for more than
half of the world contingent of poor people who had incomes no higher than the minimum acceptable national levels. The intervention of Islamic monetary capital in these conditions has a chance not only to give real money to specific people, but also to promote the Islamic principles of assistance to the poor on an organized basis. Moreover, the majority does not make contact with ordinary microfinance organizations, fearing bondage as a result of turning to usurious capital. Islamic institutions could fully demonstrate the humanity of the approach to the problem, without slipping into frankly speculative actions.
The microeconomics in the plans of Islamic banks can also be important politically. Organized funding can be a displacing alternative to targeted subsidies from extremist organizations. They provide small, but always demanded means, and recruit supporters who easily respond to calls for jihad in such a simple way. In fact, banks can also perform counter-terrorism functions by using money rather than weapons, expanding lending and meeting the demand for financial resources in time.
Another object of Islamic banking efforts is the introduction of a new vision of the organizational and technical side for the functioning of the Islamic financial industry institutions. The pace of intensification of the Islamic industry and the rate of gaining signs of a higher technological structure, as well as a general increase in the efficiency of the financial unit, seem insufficient against the backdrop of global trends in highly organized business like banks The idea of connecting subtle mechanisms to capital management has already entered the Islamic financial community quite deeply, and the number of supporters of the use of advanced information technologies is gradually growing. From a corporate point of view, the transition to the release of internal reserves at the expense of rational use of personnel and optimization of relations between the structural units of banks to open the way for innovations, can become more advantageous.
Islamic financial business in its current form is quite settled in the Arab-Muslim world as a natural part of its modern
economic structure. The current practice suggests that improvements in different parts of Islamic entrepreneurship can give significant impetus to its development. The final result should be realized in at least two dimensions. One materializes in the willingness of Islamic capital to improve and develop its banking component, thereby demonstrating a response to the challenges of the world market. Another is seen in strengthening the position of Islamic Finance in competition with Western institutions, despite the fact that they have monopolized a huge segment of the global financial space.
Author of the abstract - Valentina Schensnovich
CONTENTS OF "RUSSIA AND THE MOSLEM WORLD" BULLETIN FOR 2018 №№ 1 (299) - 4 (302)
№ 1(299)
Sergey Ustinkin, Ekaterina Rudakova, Dursun Eminov.
Gender Strategies of Non-Commercial Organizations, "Soft Power" as an Instrument of Society's Cultural Code and State in Russia (6-10); Regina Mukhametzyanova-Duggal. Religion and Power in Russia in the 20th - 21st Centuries: Three Models of State -Confessional Relations (11-16); Sergei Rastorguev. Foreign-Policy Hybrid Possibilities of Modern Russia and Threats to it: Challenge to Society, the State and Elite (16-19); Mikhail Reshetnikov. What Attracts the Youth To Terrorist Organizations and Groups (20-24); Oleg Rybakovsky, Olga Tayunova. Migration Component of Demographic Development of Russia (25-29); Rustam Gibadullin. Problem of Cultural and Historical Identity of Tatarstan as a Part of Muslim World: Experience of Understanding (30-35); Gaidulla Gilyazov, Rosa Nurullina. Professional Retraining and Upgrading of Imams in Tatarstan: Social Practice, Assessments and Views (3638); Olga Tsvetkova. Transformation of Subnational Political Area
of the Caucasian Region (38-44); Surhai Galbatsev. Challenges and Risks of Stable Development in Republic of Daghestan (Ethnopolitical Aspect) (44-47); Ruslan Suleimanov. Country between Two Fires: How Azerbaijan Balances between Israel and Iran (47-56); Stanislav Pritchin. Uzbek Transit for Central Asia (56-59); Niyazi Aziz. Russia - Central Asia: Quality of Life and Sustainable Development. To the Issue of Integration (60-71); Alexander Krylov, Andrei Fedorchenko. The Middle East: State Prospescts of Regional Situation Development (72-86); Evgeny Biryukov. Relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran in the Sphere of Security (86-92); Boris Dolgov. Socio-Political Development of Tunisia and Strategy of "Al-Nahda" Movement (93-98); Ekaterina Elkina. Hydro-Policy in the Nile Basin (98-102); Odil Ernazarov. Ten Years of Tokyo Muslim School Activity (1927-1937) (103-113); Platon Polomoshnov, Andrei Polomoshnov. Islamic and Christian Anthropology as Versions of Religious Humanism (114119); Aidar Iuzeev. Formation of Islamic Theology: Confessional and Regional Aspects (119-121); Olga Novikova. Women in Islamic State (121-125); Leonid Sukiyainen. Islamic Conception of Caliphate: Origins and Contemporary Interpretation (125-131.)
№ 2(300)
Vladimir Baranovsky. Changes in Global Political Landscape (5-11); Alexander Samokhin. On the Role of the Scientific Community in the Time of the Global Information War (12-14); Irina Savchenko, Ludmila Snegireva, Sergei Ustinkin. Transformation of Religious Consciousness of Young People: Trends and Contradictions (15-17); Elena Dmitrieva. The System of Islamic Education in Russia (20th - early 21st centuries) (18-23); Zinaida Sikevich. Ethnic Identity of Russians and Chechens in the Context of Historical Memory (Comparison Study) (24-29); Madina Batchaeva. Muslim Youth Subcultures in the Karachayevo-Circassian Republic: Structure and functions (30-34); Eldar Kasaev. Azerbaijan: With Russia or the West (34-40);
Lyubov Simutenkova. Regional Priorities of Foreign Policy of Uzbekistan: Bibliographic Reference (40-49); Natalya Totskoynova. Cooperation of the Central Asian States on Combating Terrorism (50-62); Vasily Belozerov. Iranian Factor of Russian State Strategy (63-64); Mustafa Khaled Khadzh. Historical Aspects of the Implementation of the U.S. Foreign Policy Strategy in the Middle East Direction (65-74); Mikhail Slinkin. Specific Nature of the Syrian Armed Opposition Warfighting (74-79); Grigory Lukyanov. Libyan Crisis: Five Years of Insecurity, Degradation and Disintegration (80-87); Ural Sharipov. Political and Intra-Religious Crisis in Yemen and Provocative Role of External Forces (88-92); Igor Dobayev, Ruslan Gajibekov. "Shahidism": Kind of Terrorism Disguised as Islam (93-103); Gafurov Uygun. History of Formation and Prospects of Development of Islamic Education System in the Administration of Muslims in Uzbekistan (103-118).
№ 3(301)
Dmitry Yefremenko. "Deoligarchisation" in Post-Soviet Russia: Retrospective View (6-18); Igor Dobayev, Nadezhda Gontarenko. Radicalization of the Islamic Movement in the Middle East: Challenges, Risks and Threats to National Security of the Russian Federation (19-29); Alexander Khokhlov. Islamic Finance: A Boost to the Economy or a Threat to National Security? (29-33); Rais Ismailov. Ways of Formation of Competitive Russian Islamic Education (34-35); Shamil Kashaf. Dissemination of Institutional Organization Experience of Islamic Education in Foreign Policy Context of Russia, Turkey and Central Asian Countries Cooperation (36-40); Zalina Sultanahmedova. Specific Character of Islamic Extremism (40-44); Muslimat Magomedova. Manifestations of Religious-Political Extremism in the Republic of Daghestan and Countermeasures (45-48); Zenfira Rustamova. Azerbaijan - Iran: Some Important Stages of Development of Bilateral Relations (48-53); Lyudmila Maksakova. Demographic and Migration Potential of Uzbekistan (53-58); Elena Dmitrieva.
Water Consumption in Central Asian Countries in Post-Soviet Period: Conflict of Interests (58-62); Aziz Niyazi. The World, CIS and Central Asia in the Measurements of Hunger index (63-72); Elena Alekseenkova. Comparative Analysis of the Activities of "5+1" Formats, Created in Central Asia (with the U.S., Korea, Japan and the EU Participation) (73-81); Roman Silantiev. Cooperation of Russia and Iran on the Issue of Combating Religious-Motivated Extremism and Terrorism - Promising Directions (82-85); Ruslan Shangaraev. Ideological Aspects of Turkish Foreign Policy (86-89); Konstantin Dudarev. Winds of Changes over Saudi Arabia, Asia and Africa (89-93); Vladimir Karyakin. Degradation of Secular State Institutions in Arab Countries Accompanied by Active Islamic Fundamentalism (94100); Vasily Kuznetsov, Irina Zvyagelskaya. Problems of Statehood in the Middle East (100-105); Olga Bibikova. Role of Sunni and Shia Controversies of the Situation in the Middle East (105-111); Shakhzod Islamov. Religious Propaganda of the Islamic State Terrorist Organization (111-115); Zalman Levin. Globalization and Nationalism (116-119); Nigora Yusupova. Specific Features of Family Relations in Islamic Law (120-123).
№ 4(302)
Igor Dobayev. Main Trends of Opposing Terrorism in the Youth Medium Of Russia In Ideological Sphere (5-13); Konstantin Vodenko. The Interethnic Harmony Resource in the Youth Circles in Russian Society (13-17); Dmitry Asinovsky. The Soviet Union, Nationalism and Religion in Africa and the Middle East (19551980) (18-30); Aleksei Starostin, Alexander Yarkov. Muslims in Priamurye: a Historic Portrait's Outline (31-41); Saida Sirazhudinova, Surkhai Galbatsev. Ethno-Political Competition and Civil Society in the Sustainable Development of the Republic of Daghestan (41-46); Valentina Schensnovich. Geopolitics in the Caspian (47-62); Igor Savin. Russia as a Threat / Guarantor of Kazakhstan's Security: Factors of Creation of Image in Public
Opinion (63-67); Elena Dmitrieva. The Territorial Question as an Internal Factor Destabilizing Situation in Central Asia (67-74); Denis Maltsev. Historical Myths of the Countries of Middle Asia (74-81); Stanislav Klepikov. On the Question of the Strategic Alliance between the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran (2017) (82-85); Vladimir Ahmedov. Religious Factor of Armed Uprising in Syria: Social, Ideological and Military Aspects (85-90); Aziz Niyazi. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Norway, Russia and Green Economy (91-100); Olga Bibikova. Attitudes Towards Islam in Hungary (100-105); Gyulnara Gadzhimuradova. European Muslims and Muslims in Europe: Side by Side or Together? (106-109); Ural Sharipov. Geostrategic Role of the West in Exacerbating Political and Religious Conflicts in the Middle East (110-117); Alexander Filonik. The Islamic Financial Industry and Modern Challenges (117-122).
