STUDY OF LITERATURE FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY, BLOCKCHAIN AND ISLAMIC FINANCE

FinTech is a new term in the financial industry and its aim is to improve financial services through the use of technology.” Financial technology is one of the most widely used terms for research in the financial industry today. The future of Islamic finance especially Islamic FinTech is very good in Muslim countries. The development of mobile and smartphones has paved the way for FinTech growth in these countries. These opportunities are certainly not without challenges. The biggest challenge for Islamic FinTech companies is about regulation and the lack of good and authentic research in the Sharia Fintech sector. Islamic FinTech needs to keep pace with the rapid developments that occur in the conventional financial world, Islamic FinTech must maintain stability and must protect investors and institutions from fraudulent trading practices.

Alternative news on social media in Norway

Alternative news media in Norway have become visible in public debates. Partly because of news sharing on social media. Social media has become an arena for news, information, and public debate, and has also become a place to fight for the news agenda. The present study examines news sharing in social media in Norway and how right-wing alternative news outlets use social media to impact the news agenda. These are small organizations with only a handful of employees, but they have very proactive readers and feature a considerable amount of user-generated content. They are critical of immigration, particularly from Muslim countries, and of the political elite. They mimic traditional media in the way they organize and label their content, but their reporting is more subjective. The present study uses quantitative content analysis to reveal which topics are the most shared on social media, and from which news type of news organizations they come. It also looks at how news sharing differed in the days following a series of terrorist attacks and how the pattern changed during the course of a normal day. This leads to a discussion on participatory journalism and how news sharing can be seen as a part of the public debate.

Islamization vs. Islamophobia: A New Historicist Reading of Cold War Politics in Contemporary Pakistani Anglophone Fiction

Islamization and Islamophobia present two different narratives. Since Cold War, these two narratives have been influencing Muslims globally, especially Pakistan due to its support of Talibanization during the Soviet (communist) invasion of Afghanistan. Pakistan’s initial support of Talibanization in coalition with America, where the country yielded a religiously extremist status, provides a premise to suspect America and the West’s (capitalists) role in its development. The treatment of the very ‘Muslim identity in the pre-Cold War and the post-Cold War contexts reveals an interesting shift in the Western approach towards Muslims. The pre-Cold War era shows overt Western support for the narrative of Islamization in Muslim countries, whereas the post-Cold War era shows a sudden bounce of anti-Muslim sentiments in the West. This shift calls into question the role of power in the development of both narratives. Using Stephen Greenblatt’s critique of self-fashioning, subversion, containment, and power, we aim to explore both narratives concerning the selected Pakistani Anglophone fiction: Muhammad Hanif’s A Case of Exploding Mangoes (2008) and Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album (1995). The current article concludes that Islamization and Islamophobia are both political policies that have been serving the interest of power to contain the subversions it encountered in different forms. We also suggest that both narratives exploit the discursive forms (literary and non-literary) of the particular era where they are recorded.

Zakat, SDGs, and Poverty Alleviation of Muslims in India

Muslims are the largest minority in India, yet the federal government has, in place, just a single Muslim-specific poverty alleviation scheme, which is utterly insufficient to meet their financial needs. Hence, in the face of governmental apathy and indifferent attitude, Muslims are left to fend for themselves. In this scenario, Zakāt turns out to be a more-than-handy tool to alleviate poverty among Muslims in India. Zakāt, over the years, has manifested itself as a successful means to meet out the financial needs of the developmental activities across the level including the non-Muslim countries. Zakāt possesses a robust potential to play a critical role to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to alleviate the poverty of Muslims in a Hindu-majority country like India.

Male and Female Successors' Support

Despite substantial research on business success, female succession, its associated process, the encountered difficulties within the succession process, and the suitable support are theoretically ignored. The low attention of this subject is preconditioned by some cultural factors essentially religion and habits favorable to man. Successors face some difficulties like acceptance, integration, insertion, and management. It differs from the context and the successors' identities. Some countries support men more than women; others support women than men while some countries refuse this distinction. Using 20 successors, this study aims to understand how religion interferes in supporting successors within the succession process. Muslim countries offer to contextually support and assure business continuity and business cohesion.

The Axiological and Praxeological Relationship Between Political Islam and Liberal Democracy

The question of the correlation between Islam, political Islam, and liberal democracy has so far been the most exposed topic in exploring the democratic capacity of political Islam and Islamic societies in general. What is particularly intriguing about the relationship between political Islam and liberal democracy is the fact of its Westernized triviality that has received a pejorative tone in Islamic political circles. The following chapter analyzes the relationship of political Islam to specific inherent categories of liberal democracy such as the rule of law, representative government, the separation of powers, and secularism as differentia specifica of liberal Western democratic discourse. This chapter argued how appropriate tangent or divergence is illustrated and how this is reflected in the general ideological positioning of political Islam towards the liberal democracy in the Muslim countries through an axiological and praxeological perspective.

The Ruling on Aborting the Fetus and Its Effect on Inheritance: A Comparative Study between the Four Sunni Schools, Indonesian Law and Malaysian Law

Abortion is an act of killing to life which is forbidden in Islam. Abortion gives rise to differences of view among past and contemporary scholars on its enabling and prohibition. So, this study is to examine the views of scholars and laws in Indonesia and Malaysia related to abortion and its impact on inheritance ownership. This situation affects the inheritance of property to the mother from the aborted baby. The method of this study is qualitative descriptive. The approach of this research method is descriptive of content through literature. Books, journals, newspaper clippings, and legal regulations are the premier references to this study. This study finds that there are similarities and differences between sharia law and the rules applied in Indonesia and Malaysia. In terms of similarities, Islamic law and the laws in Indonesia and Malaysia provide for the prohibition of abortion. But, in certain circumstances, the fetus can be aborted for certain reasons, such as harming the mother or for medical reasons. In addition, this study found differences in punishment for women who had an abortion for no valid reason. Therefore, this study reveals the harmonization of Islamic law with the laws conducted in Indonesia and Malaysia. So, this study recommends forming a better in-depth study of efforts to harmonize the larger Islamic law to the rules regulated in Muslim countries.

An Enhanced Islamic Index of Well-Being (IWI 2.0-2021) for Muslim Countries

This is a revised version of an assessment of the Islamic Well-Being Index (IWI) of Muslim majority countries, first published by this author in 2013 (IWI 1.0). It uses an improved, updated methodology and reflects the essential maqasid al-shari‘ah (Higher Objectives of Islamic Law) developed by Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali. The IWI provides practical insights for countries that aspire to move to a higher state. Leading countries in the maqasid fields could serve as role models for lagging counties. More specifically, IWI indicators provide a way to spot problems, set targets, track trends, and identify best practice policies. This 2021 assessment adds four more countries to the 27 ranked previously. The method incorporates insights from leading Islamic scholars who have developed a ‘maqasid index of governance’ for Muslim countries. The top three countries listed in the Index are (first to third): Indonesia, Tunisia and Malaysia. Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country with a successful democracy, experienced an Islamic resurgence, which is reflected in its citizens’ moderate values and practices. Leading countries within the maqasid fields are (first, second): Religion – Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria; Life – UAE, Brunei; Intellect - Albania, Kyrgyzstan; Family – Morocco, Tunisia; and Wealth – Malaysia, UAE. Countries showing greatest improvement in IWI rankings are Lebanon and Turkey. Those that significantly worsened are Afghanistan, Nigeria, Chad and Iraq. To expand the applicability of this index, governments in Muslim majority countries need to facilitate assessment. In particular, religiosity surveys should be expanded and periodic surveys are required to fill other data gaps. The IWI Index and its highlights should be prepared and published annually.

THE INFLUENCE OF RESOURCES DIMENSIONS AND INNOVATION SOLUTION ON VALUE CREATION: A CASE STUDY OF HALAL LOGISTICS SERVICE IN THAILAND

This study examines the influence of the relationship between resources dimensions and the value creation of logistics service providers (LSPs), in the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). It also explores the mediating role of innovation solutions in halal logistics in the relationship between resources dimensions and value creation. Halal logistics play an important role in Muslim countries, and there has been a growing demand for halal products from non-Muslims. Despite its importance, there is limited knowledge of halal logistics problems in Thailand among the LSPs. To understand these issues, the study uses a questionnaire to collect data from 200 Thai LSPs selected through purposive sampling based on their logistics experience in halal, agricultural, or food products. We test the hypotheses using structural equation modeling. The results show a direct relationship between resources dimensions and the value creation of LSPs. The resource dimension is indirectly related to value creation through innovation solutions that mean it acts as a partial mediator in the relationship between resources dimensions and value creation. This study has important implications for LSPs in Thailand in that it demonstrates that they can promote innovation through resources utilization and thereby enhance financial and business performance.