Abstract
Some Muslims believe that Islam prohibits interest-bearing finance, including bank loans. What consequences might such ideas have for the lives of Muslims in the West? More specifically, we ask: what are the attitudes and practices in financial matters for highly educated professional Muslims in the Nordic countries? And what are the consequences of this type of financial exclusion? We combine results from a survey (N = 2469) with 40 interviews to answer these questions. We find that there is great concern about the moral status of finance among people in our samples. We also find that religious authority on matters of finance is highly fragmented and that moral judgement about finance is individualized. Finally, we see that the choice to avoid a mortgage sometimes results in the abnegation of homeownership and may have negative consequences for feelings of local belonging.
Highlights
Introduction and research questionsSome Muslims believe that conventional financial services – like mortgages, credit cards and insurance – are sinful and immoral in a religious sense because they are based on interest and excessive and asymmetric risk-taking
Our research question is narrowed to: what are the attitudes and practices in financial matters for highly educated professional Muslims in the Nordic countries who refrain from using financial services for religious and moral reasons? We decided on narrowing our research question with regard to the potential consequences of financial exclusion
We interviewed ten professionals from each of the Nordic countries, and all interviews were carried out by trained research assistants who were highly integrated in the research process through workshops with the research team in Oslo and Copenhagen. We restricted this interview sample to only those who had refrained from using conventional bank loans for religious reasons
Summary
Introduction and research questionsSome Muslims believe that conventional financial services – like mortgages, credit cards and insurance – are sinful and immoral in a religious sense (haram) because they are based on interest and excessive and asymmetric risk-taking. We ask: what are the attitudes and practices in financial matters for highly educated professional Muslims in the Nordic countries?
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