Dante vs Mohammad, Islamic banking and Afghanistan after US withdrawal

Three reads today:

1. A Pakistani student Mehdi Hasan* advises Muslims to behave and argues that if Mohammad can survive Dante, He can survive a small insignificant sort-of movie ‘Innocence of Muslims’.

2. Mike Seccombe discusses Islamic Banking and if it can bail Australia out of financial struggle.

3. Finally, Ejaz Haider comes back to US presence and 2014 withdrawal. The crux of the discussion:

Most analysts believe a US withdrawal without stabilising Afghanistan will plunge the country into a civil war. There are three problems with this argument: one, the US presence itself is contributing to instability; two, the US is in no position to stabilise Afghanistan; three, whether the US leaves in a year, two years or five, Afghanistan will see another round of civil war. The longer the US stays the greater the intensity of the next round.

* incidently, I am also listening to one of Ustad Mehdi Hasan’s fabulous ghazals.

Related articles

• Pakistan central bank aims to strengthen Islamic finance sector (dawn.com)
• Malaysia’s Islamic banks ripe for consolidation-Bank Muamalat (uk.reuters.com)
• Malaysia aims to be human capital supplier for global Islamic banking (bikyamasr.com)
• World Bank agrees to Islamic banking (ghanabusinessnews.com)