<Special Feature “Socio-economic Impacts of Islam on Capitalism, Civil Society, and Modernity”>Sociogenesis of Islamic Finance in Europe

Abstract

Born in Muslim countries in the 1950s, the Islamic finance industry became a European social fact from the end of the 1970s. Islamic finance differs from conventional finance in its contractual practices of prescriptions issued from the Sharîa (Qur'an and Sunna). The European conventional use of financial capitalism contravenes these practices, such as the practice of interest, ribâ, hazard, gharar, speculation, maysir, and hoarding. This chapter observes the plasticity of Islamic and national norms in the European context and the arrangements needed to overcome the conflicts of norms, practices, and linguistics to create a European repertoire of Islamic finance. This repertoire is relayed by new European Muslim figures, including bankers, brokers, insurers, consultants, and jurisconsults, who root Islamic finance in Europe through their professional practices.