I am not a muslim so lets get that out of the way, I urge you to read this, it was news to me. "In the Islamic concept, money is strictly for the purpose of exchange or storing value, but not for the transaction of looking for excessive profit," "customer could go to an Islamic bank and sign a contract with the bank to buy a car from them. The bank would not loan the money but buy the car itself. Then it would sell it to the customer at a mark up. The customer would agree to pay back the cost in instalments over a regular period. One of the core principles at the heart of Islamic economics is risk sharing." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8025410.stm
it is certainly or more moral system however if you get rid of interest you have no way of controlling the money supply. this is something i identified a a few years ago so i devised a way of controlling money supply with out interest. it is called the current pension rebate. if you like heterodox economics with a moral view you may enjoy this. http://www.morganisteconomics.org.uk/Documents/WhatIsTheCurrentPensionRebate.pdf it is only the basic paper if you want to read more the full paper is at my website in the pension section it is called the pension problem and is the bottom paper of that section. my website is morganisteconomics.org.uk i have also invented a way of generating capital and safe investment that is not based on credit and is more moral the shadow treasury team are looking at it at the moment so you might hear about it if it is successful. also the church of england are interested in my work. if you want more information send me a personal message if you select my user name.
With all due respect, there is no difference between what the islamic banks are doing, and charging interest, none. The banks are still spending their money, when the consumer cannot afford to pay cash, and they are still charging for the service. So if the muslim people are so willing to break their own rules and even willing to look like fools for thinking they can put a spin on regular banking and call it something new, what does that say for them and their laws? I said with all due respect.
(ha to the last part.. the white guy disclaimer) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_banking#Classical_Islamic_banking Hmmm... looks like the journalist stole from wiki.
I think Islamic banking success comes from not printing a lot of money and Having higher reserve requirements, I know Jordan has like 80%. All this helps them have a better financial system. We however, have a bubbleconomic system.