FORBES.COM: The notion of ethical investing goes back at least to 1758, when the Quakers banned profiting from the slave trade. But the market for ethical investments has always remained a niche. The goals of maximizing profit and fulfilling a moral agenda conflict more often than they complement one another, and investors who want to put ethics first have turned out to be relatively few. "Socially responsible investing," or SRI, as it is called these days, has never captured the heart of Wall Street.
That could be changing. Finance that complies with Sharia, or Islamic law, is still a niche within the ethical investing niche. In all, there are at least $500 billion worth of Islamic finance assets worldwide. That's not much in terms of global banking--U.S. banks alone hold about $12.7 trillion in assets, according to the American Bankers Association.
But the industry's growth is eye-catching: Islamic banking has expanded by more 10% annually over the past decade, according to Standard & Poor's. It's grabbing the attention of some of the biggest banks in the world, and changing how they do business. God and Mammon >>> By Elisabeth Eaves | April 21, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)
