Islamic finance is one of the fastest growing segments in the world financial markets. It is estimated that its growth, over the past few years, ranged from 10 to 15 percent and this rapid growth is expected to continue for many years. Islamic finance drives its strength from moral and ethical backgrounds, the lack of which is thought to have been at the basis of the last financial downturn. It targets community welfare while setting the ground for best business practices and individual self-achievement. The growth of this industry relies also on the massive population of Muslims, which some estimates put at least at 1.5 billion Muslims around the world.

BACKGROUND: Since the inception of the first fully-fledged Islamic bank in the 1970s, Islamic financial institutions have been thriving and relentlessly innovating. However, academic research in this field has not been catching up enough with the practice and has not been able thus far to support the business world with the needed scholarly guidelines and framework. Therefore, there is need to synthesize research to date, and to address the weaknesses and neglected areas by researchers in this field.

Through the organization of the First AUS Symposium on Islamic Banking and Finance, the Islamic Finance and Banking Program at American University of Sharjah intends to provide a platform for academics and practitioners to meet and discuss the issues that need further attention from researchers. A selected number of papers will be published in the Journal of Multinational Financial Management special issue, subject to the review process.

Topics: Potential topics include but are not limited to:

• Corporate governance issues in Islamic financial institutions
• The effect of the financial crisis on Islamic financial institutions 
• Limits of the Shariah board actions 
• Financial engineering in Islamic finance 
• Areas of potential growth
• Behavioral Islamic finance
• Islamic marketing and branding
• Corporate social responsibility in the Islamic finance framework
• Accounting for Islamic financial Institutions
• Islamic microfinance
• Islamic economics
• The social responsibility of Islamic financial institutions
• Governments' regulations towards Islamic finance 

 Deadlines:

• Abstract submission: April 30, 2012 
• Reply to authors: May 15, 2012
• Full paper submission: September 30, 2012 
• Reply to authors: October 25, 2012 

Paper submission Procedure: Please email your abstract or questions to Dr. Abdelaziz Chazi at achazi@aus.edu