The 'business' of culture: Morality and practice in Islamic finance

Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) are late twentieth century institutions designed to help Muslims conduct business internationally while simultaneously upholding traditional Islamic values related to trade finance and currency movement. The basis for their existence is the Islamic moral prohibition on charging interest---interest is a central component of capitalist banking---yet IFIs conduct billions of dollars of business annually in the world economy and the de facto Islamic banking transaction is---in most cases---virtually identical to a capitalist banking transaction.;In this dissertation, I outline some of Islamic finance's objections to conventional finance. Then I discuss some of the external forces of globalization that have impacted Muslims in the world today. I posit that the formation of the industry is a response of Muslims to the impact of these forces upon their lives. Technological advances and the relative ease of human and capital migration are the primary factors in the formation of this condition of globalization. As a result of these movements, traditional relationships of the self to various aspects of the world must be mediated. Definitions of self, community and divinity in particular are transformed and individuals turn to specific discourses to describe their experiences of such relationships. There is a need for people to develop a global consciousness to cope with the forces of globalization. I look to the industry's discourse of morality and daily practices to find evidence for the industry's claim that Islamic finance offers the benefits of conventional finance without the immorality.;My findings contribute to the knowledge of how globalization impacts individuals and their daily lives. Existing globalization literature concentrates on describing the effects of globalization on a large scale but it is necessary to examine its impact on people affected by globalization in order to get a complete picture of how the world has been transformed by migration and technological advances. My findings also contribute to the field of cultural psychology by redefining culture in terms of shared experiences based upon a person's identification with a global culture that includes a balanced view of capitalism and a Muslim subjectivity.