| dc.description.abstract | The Islamic financial industry has risen out of Muslim discomfort with the practices of conventional finance – interest-based trading, speculation, inequitable transactions, and investment in products that violate the religion – and posits itself as an alternative, morally grounded economic system. The 2008 global financial crisis sparked renewed interest in the sector as academics investigated the geographic form of this alternative financial system. Although primarily concentrated in countries with Muslim majorities, Islamic banking and finance (IBF) has become a global industry representing both a decentering of the global financial architecture and the emergence of an urban network that resides beyond the confines of traditional world city literature. While geographers have identified the “Mecca’s” of the Islamic finance industry – one of which is Bahrain – there remains a need to investigate the constituent elements and processes that define Islamic finance and determine its spatial organization, as well as the factors which differentiate the global landscape of IBF from that of conventional finance. This includes more traditional locational factors, such as the presence of IBF firms and financial professionals, consumer markets and regulators, but also more dynamic and ephemeral elements, such as the significance of global Shari’a scholar networks, the nature of secondary bond (sukuk) markets, and the role of governing bodies. This lacuna is especially important in light of the industry’s expansion into new centers in the West. As such, it is important to not only examine these elements in the context of established, leading hubs, but also in the developing Western market. | en |
