ISLAMIC BANKING - EXPERIENCES IN THE ISLAMIC-REPUBLIC-OF-IRAN AND IN PAKISTAN

The development of Islamic banking has, in some countries, involved an attempt to restructure the whole financial system of the economy in accord with Islamic concepts. This has taken two directions, one in which the entire economy and its institutions, including financial, are transformed into an Islamic one, as in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the other where Islamization of the economy is undertaken through a gradual process beginning with the banking sector, as in Pakistan. As these two countries have initiated the most far-reaching experiments with Islamic banking, their experiences, particularly with regard to how the system was introduced and how it has been functioning since its inception, have a bearing on the feasibility of Islamic banking in these and other Muslim countries. -from Authors