My comments posted on indiatomorrow.net website article:
Govt. move to launch Shariah Mutual Fund welcomed by Mumtaz Alam
" My protest is in principle to all government moves to bypass legislation
allowing 200 Million Muslims to fully enjoy the constitutional freedom of
religion, and force them to accept its own version of Islamic Finance and
Banking, with its own bureaucratic superstructure imposing what is Islamic for
the Indian Muslims. Compared to Malaysia, Indian Government has nothing to do
with Islam and its special needs for Muslims, India being a secular state.
Besides, Government's own record of managing any financial institutions is that
Nationalized Banks, insurance companies, pension funds, are all fraught with
graft. How can Muslims trust the government not to mismanage and divert funds
from Muslim corpus and deposits to other than Muslim channels? A mutual fund by
definition is risk prone. Who will put the Government and its agencies into
dock, if they declare losses arbitrarily and siphon our assets by any number of
clever manipulations, all appearing to be legal, as Mutual Funds are entirely
based on clear mandate from investors, to allow the managers to do what they
feel is good investment and these managers have full authority given by small
print in agreements, to take the investors on a wild ride. All such risks
should be kept in mind, before Muslims should give full support to the
well-meaning Congress Minority Minister, who has been so roundly harassed by
his own colleagues, to water down his demands on Muslim preferred financial
legislation, allowing them to manage their financial affairs freely, in
conformity with Quranic injunctions as well as their own accountability over
their community affairs."
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
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Govt. move to launch Shariah Mutual Fund welcomed
11 Jan 2014 02:01 PM, IST
H Abdur Raqeeb
By Mumtaz Alam, India Tomorrow,
New Delhi, 11 Jan 2014: The Indian Centre for Islamic Finance (ICIF) has welcomed the move of the Government of India to float a Shariah compliant mutual fund to attract investments from the Muslim community and financing Haj pilgrimage.
It is “a welcome step towards introducing an alternate interest free finance in the banking sector of the country,” said H Abdur Raqeeb, General Secretary, ICIF.
K Rahman Khan, Minister of Minority Affairs, has reportedly come up with the idea to tap Muslim investments said to be lying idle as interest is prohibited in Islam. “There is a great need for investment. The capital raised would be used to fund minority welfare,” Rahman Khan was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times on 09 Jan.
According to the English daily, Shariah Mutual Fund is aimed to finance minority welfare schemes by also reinvesting earnings from Wakf, or Islamic endowments of charity, usually in the form of prime real estate. The fund will be floated by State Bank of India.
The minority affairs ministry has reportedly asked the SBI to prepare a feasibility report. The bank has already sent a team to Malaysia, which runs a similar successful model.
According to Mr. Raqeeb of ICIF, the government proposal is based on the Tabung Haji, Malaysian Pilgrimage Management Fund model which is an unique Islamic financial institution, designed as per international best corporate governance framework with the aim of mobilising savings of individuals and successfully managing investment in an Islamic way in order to fulfil the life-long desire of the individuals for performing the Haj.
“The success of Tabung Haji is due to mainly the full support of the Malaysian government as well as the people in that country,” said Mr. Raqeeb.
Mr. Raqeeb, who is also Convenor, National Committee on Islamic Banking, has been striving for long for interest-free Islamic banking in India. The new development has renewed his hope that “GOI and RBI will soon introduce Interest free finance in the banking sector as recommended by the present RBI Governor, Dr Raghuram Rajan, Sukuk, Islamic asset based bonds for infrastructure development as well as Takaful- co-operative insurance in the insurance sector.”
New Delhi, 11 Jan 2014: The Indian Centre for Islamic Finance (ICIF) has welcomed the move of the Government of India to float a Shariah compliant mutual fund to attract investments from the Muslim community and financing Haj pilgrimage.
It is “a welcome step towards introducing an alternate interest free finance in the banking sector of the country,” said H Abdur Raqeeb, General Secretary, ICIF.
K Rahman Khan, Minister of Minority Affairs, has reportedly come up with the idea to tap Muslim investments said to be lying idle as interest is prohibited in Islam. “There is a great need for investment. The capital raised would be used to fund minority welfare,” Rahman Khan was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times on 09 Jan.
According to the English daily, Shariah Mutual Fund is aimed to finance minority welfare schemes by also reinvesting earnings from Wakf, or Islamic endowments of charity, usually in the form of prime real estate. The fund will be floated by State Bank of India.
The minority affairs ministry has reportedly asked the SBI to prepare a feasibility report. The bank has already sent a team to Malaysia, which runs a similar successful model.
According to Mr. Raqeeb of ICIF, the government proposal is based on the Tabung Haji, Malaysian Pilgrimage Management Fund model which is an unique Islamic financial institution, designed as per international best corporate governance framework with the aim of mobilising savings of individuals and successfully managing investment in an Islamic way in order to fulfil the life-long desire of the individuals for performing the Haj.
“The success of Tabung Haji is due to mainly the full support of the Malaysian government as well as the people in that country,” said Mr. Raqeeb.
Mr. Raqeeb, who is also Convenor, National Committee on Islamic Banking, has been striving for long for interest-free Islamic banking in India. The new development has renewed his hope that “GOI and RBI will soon introduce Interest free finance in the banking sector as recommended by the present RBI Governor, Dr Raghuram Rajan, Sukuk, Islamic asset based bonds for infrastructure development as well as Takaful- co-operative insurance in the insurance sector.”
