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Monthly Archives: March 2012
March 19, 2012
DR. ZULKIFLI HASAN
Secularism and Relation between Religion and the State from the Perspective of the Nahdha’s Party
Secularism and Relation between Religion and the State from the Perspective of the Nahdha’s Party
By Rached Ganouchi
In the name of God, prayers and peace be upon His Messenger, his household, companions, and supporters.
Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters may God’s peace and blessings be upon you.
I thank the Centre for the Study of Islam and Democracy for giving me the opportunity this evening to speak to this distinguished elite of Tunisian men and women and those coming from abroad. I am not here to teach you anything, since the subject we are here to discuss has no set instructions to be delivered but rather only points of view to be deepened and efforts to reach a common ground that would enable our elite to reach a consensus or at least a quasi-consensus.
Our topic is quite problematic in the sense that it deals with the Islam’s relationship to secularism. Is this relationship one of conflict and disaccord or one of harmony and overlap? Related to this question are issues such as Islam’s relationship to governance, the relation between Islam and Law, which are all contentious matters.
It seems that when we speak of secularism and Islam, as if we are talking about evident and clear concepts. However, a non-negligible amount of ambiguity and multiplicity of understandings surround these concepts, in that we are not talking about ‘a’ secularism but rather a multitude of secularisms as is the case with Islam, by virtue of what is proposed in the arena, we are faced with various understandings of what it means.
Although secularism seems as if it was a philosophy and the fruit of philosophical reflections and meditations which came to fight idealist and religious outlooks, it is not so. Secularism appeared, evolved, and crystallized in the West as procedural solutions, and not as a philosophy or theory of existence, to problems that had been posed in the European context. Most of these problems emerged following the Protestant split in the West, which tore apart the consensus that had been dominant in the Catholic Church, and imposed the religious wars in the 16th and 17th century. It was thus that Secularism and/or secularization began.
This leads us to ask the following question: are we in need of secularism in its procedural aspect? Perhaps the most important idea in the ensemble of these procedures is the idea of the state’s neutrality i.e. towards religions and its abstention from interfering with people’s consciences. Whereas, the state’s scope or jurisdiction is limited to the ‘Public Domain’, religion’s scope extends to the ‘Private’. In the United States religious interference in the public domain is evident, despite the differentiation that exists there remains a significant religious influence. Their leaders’ speeches are laden with religious content and references, and religion is debated in all electoral campaigns where it manifests itself in issues such as prayer in schools and abortion. This in reality is due to the fact that America was founded by evangelical pilgrims fleeing with their religion from the Catholic Church’s persecution in Europe. It is for this reason that the U.S. is looked at as the Promised Land, the land of dreams mentioned in the Torah and Gospels.
As the Franco-American thinker Tocqueville once remarked that the Church is the most powerful party in the United States. This is by virtue of the huge influence that it enjoys, though this is not the case in Europe. Whereas the number of those who can lead prayer in the US exceeds 50%, in Europe it does not reach 5%.
In the European context, also, there are differences in the state’s relationship with religion between the French heritage and Anglo-Saxon one, whereby in the UK the Queen combines the temporal and the religious powers. The complete separation is the one that is associated with the French experience, which resulted from the clashes that took place in French history between the revolutionaries’ state and the Catholic Church. Even in Europe, therefore, we are not dealing with one experience in secularism, perhaps for our purposes, since our elite is influenced by the particular French perspective (particular even for Europeans) where religion is totally excluded from the public sphere and the state considers itself as the sole guardian of national identity. This exclusion of the religious and its symbols from the public domain is what lead France to be the only country that refused the covering of heads for Muslim women, while we don’t see such a crisis in any other European country over the issue of headscarves. This is exclusively due to the particular nature of the relationship between state and religion in France which was the result of a particular historical experience.
We in turn are not faced with one understanding; perhaps the most important procedure invented by the secular worldview on this level is the state’s neutrality. In other words, the state is the guarantor of all freedoms be them religious, political or otherwise. And the state should not interfere in favor of this or that party. We pose the following question now: Is Islam in need of such a procedure? i.e. the state’s neutrality towards the various religions.
Islam, since its inception, has always combined religion with politics, religion and state. The Prophet (peace be upon him) was the founder of the religion as well as the state. The first pledge of allegiance made by the group of Madina who came to Mecca was a religious pledge to believe in Allah and his Messenger. But the second pledge was to protect the Muslims, even by sword, should al-Madina be attacked. Al-Madina, and this expression is of the utmost importance, used to be called Yathrib before becoming Al-Madina (The City) which implies that Islam is not merely a religion but also carries a civilizational meaning. It is a transferring of people from Bedouin life to urban/civilizational life. This is why ‘Bedouinization’ was considered a great sin once urbanization had been achieved. No wonder then that wherever Islam went it established cities and our country hosts the oldest city built by Arabs in North Africa. Therefore, The City founded by the Prophet (pbuh) is a clear indication that Islam is a religion of civilization, whereby it shifted those warring tribes from a Bedouin level to a civilized one and united them around a state.
The Prophet (pbuh) was a an imam in the religious sense as he lead prayers in mosques, and at the same time a political imam that arbitrated people’s disputes, lead armies, and signed various accords and treaties. Of relevance to us is the fact that upon his arrival to Medina he established a mosque and put in place a constitution that was called Al-Sahifah. You have precedents here Mustapha! [In reference to Mr Mustapha Ben Ja’afar, President of the Constituent Assembly, who was present in the audience]. This Sahifah, which is one of the oldest constitutions in the world, contained a bundle of covenants regulating the relations between Meccan immigrants and their hosts (these were considered as one nation) and the Jewish tribes of Madina (also considered a nation). Al-Sahifa considered these two religious nations as comprising one political nation and entity that is distinct from others. The most important concept offered by such scholars as Muhammad Salim Al ‘Awwa and Muhammad ‘Umar is the distinction between the religious and the political as corresponding to the separation between state and religion.
The distinction between that which is political and that which is religious is clear in the Sahifah in that Muslims are a religious nation (ummah) and the Jews another, but the combination of the two plus other polytheists made up a nation in the political sense. This distinction can be witnessed in the Prophet’s dealings even if the boundaries were not always clear. Whereas the religious is the sphere of observance and obligation, the political is the sphere of reason and Ijtihad. At times when the ambiguity confused the companions, they would ask the Prophet (pbuh) whether this is divine revelation (wahy) or a mere opinion. In the case of the former they would obey, and when it is the latter they may differ and offer alternatives. On more than one occasion did the companions differ with the Prophet (pbuh) in his capacity as the head of state, and Sheikh Tahar Ben Ashour has dealt in detail with the topic of what he called ‘Prophetic Statuses’.
One day the Prophet (pbuh) passed by a group in Medina cross-pollinating palm trees and said: ‘I do not see the benefit of doing so.’ The Medinan people thought that that was divine revelation and stopped treating their trees which made their harvest of that year of a lesser quality. They asked him why he ordered them to do so, and he replied: you are best placed to know what is beneficial for you in your worldly affaires. Therefore, it is not the duty of religion to teach us agricultural, industrial or even governing techniques, because reason is qualified to reach these truths through the accumulation of experiences. The role of religion, however, is to answer the big question for us, those relating to our existence, origins, destiny, and the purpose for which we were created, and to provide us with a system of values and principles that would guide our thinking, behaviour, and the regulations of the state to which we aspire.
So, Islam since its inception and throughout its history has not known this separation between state and religion in the sense of excluding religion from public life. And Muslims, to this day, have been influenced by Islam and inspired by its teachings and guidance in their civic life, with the distinction remaining clear. This distinction between the religious and the political is also clear in the thought of Islamic scholars/jurists. They have distinguished between the system of transactions/dealings (Mu’amalat) and that of worship (‘Ibadat). Whereas the latter is the domain of constancy and observance i.e. reason cannot reach the truth, the former is the domain of searching for the general interest, for Islam came to realize people’s interests as confirmed by such great jurists as Al-Shatibi and Ibn ‘Ashour. These scholars have agreed that the highest objective of all divine messages is to establish justice and realize people’s interests, and this is done through the use of reason in light of the guidelines, objectives, values, and principles provided by religion. Thus, there is a domain of transactions/dealings which is constantly evolving and represents the sphere of variables, and there is the domain of creed, values, and virtues which represents the sphere of constants.
Throughout Islamic history, the state has always been influenced by Islam in one way or another in its practices, and its laws were legislated for in light of the Islamic values as understood at that particular time and place. Despite this, states remained Islamic not in the sense that their laws and procedures were divinely revealed, but that they were human endeavours open to challenge and criticism. States have also practiced a degree of neutrality, and when they tried to interfere and impose one understanding on Muslims, as happened in the Abbasids state, it sparked revolution. It is mentioned that al-Mansour had become concerned with the multitude of religious views and interpretations emanating from the same religion and feared their divisive effect on the state. So he sent for Imam Malik and asked him to amalgamate all these in one to unify people’s outlooks. Imam Malik produced his famous book al-Muwatta’, with which al-Mansour was greatly pleased and wanted it to become a law that binds all Muslims. This horrified Imam Malik and asked for it not to be made so, because the Prophet’s companions have travelled to different lands and took with them much knowledge, so allow people to choose what they see fit. This is why we see that one school of thought is dominant in the Maghreb, while another is so in the Levant, and yet another in Egypt…etc
It is due to the absence of a church in Islam that what remains is the freedom of thought and interpretation. This will naturally lead to a diversity in interpretation, and there is no harm in that except when we need to legislate, at which time we are in need of a mechanism, and the best mechanism that mankind has come up with is the electoral and democratic one which produces representatives of the nation and makes these interpretations a collective as opposed to an individual effort. Again, in the absence of a church representing the sacred on earth and a spokesperson of the Qur’an, the nation is the only manifestation of divine will through its interactions and not any particular scholar, party, or state.
When al-Ma’moun (Abbassid Caliph) wanted to impose one interpretation of the Quran and one particular understanding of Islamic creed (that of the Mu’tazili school), Imam Ahmed Ibn Hanbal revolted and refused the state’s attempt to dominate religion. This lead to him being persecuted and tortured, but in the end he managed to turn public opinion against the state and force al-Ma’moun to cede.
While the problematique in the west revolved around ways of liberating the state from religion and lead to destructive wars, in our context the problem is one of liberating religion from the state and preventing it from dominating religion, and keeping the latter in the societal realm, open to all Muslims to read the Qur’an and understand it in the manner that they deem appropriate, and that there is no harm in the plurality that is combined with tolerance. But should Muslims be in need of laws, the democratic mechanism is the best embodiment of the Shura (consultation) value in Islam.
It is of the utmost importance that our heritage is devoid of a church. Maybe only our Shi’ah brothers hold the belief in a religious institution, but in the Sunni world there is no such a thing save for a council of scholars which are usually in disagreement and hold different views. For this reason, we are in need of scholars and intellectuals to debate and study our issues in a climate of freedom and accept that the legislative institution is the ultimate authority by virtue of being elected.
There is a debate that is currently ongoing in our country between secular currents which may be described as extremist and Islamist ones which may be described in like manner. One would like to impose their understanding of Islam from above using state tools and apparatuses and the other aspires to strip the state, educational curricula, and national culture of all Islamic influences. At a time when the whole world, including the Islamic world, is witnessing a religious awakening, and having seen the role played by the Catholic Church in the development of Eastern Europe, starting with the efforts of Pope John Paul II, and also the role of the Russian Orthodox Church in the success of Putin’s presidential campaign. At such a junction in time, it is unreasonable to object to religious influence on the state’s cultural and educational policies. In fact, we do not need do impose Islam because it is the people’s religion and not the elite’s, and Islam has not endured for so long because of states’ influence but rather due to the large acceptance it enjoys among its adherents, in fact the state has often been a burden on religion.
As I said, many of those who belong to the Islamist current and others fear the religion’s emancipation from the state to be left as a societal matter. Why does the state train Imams? Why does it control mosques?
The issue of the state’s neutrality involves a great deal of risk and adventure. If what is meant by the separation between religion and state is that the state is a human product and religion a divine revelation as the distinction was made clear in the context of the early Muslims between the realm of revelation (wahy) and what was the realm of the political, then it is ok. But if what is mean is the separation in the French sense or in accordance with the Marxist experience then we may engage in a dangerous adventure that may harm both religion and state. The total stripping of the state from religion would turn the state into a mafia, and the world economic system into an exercise in plundering, and politics into deception and hypocrisy. And this is exactly what happened in the Western experience, despite there being some positive aspects. International politics became the preserve of a few financial brokers owning the biggest share of capital and by extension the media, through which they ultimately control politicians.
In this context, people are deeply in need of religion and its spiritual and moral guidance which would enable them to distinguish between right and wrong (halal and haram). And in the absence of a Church that monopolises the definition of what is halal and haram, this task is left to be debated by the elite of thinkers, the people and the media.
Should religion be entirely emancipated from the state and politics, this would also carry some risks whereby things would get out of control and social harmony would be endangered. The way to do it, therefore, is to find a balance that would guarantee people’s freedom and rights, because religion is here to do exactly that. To achieve this balance, we need to go back to the issue of distinguishing between religion and politics and adjust the parameters of what is constant in religion and that which is variable. We need our legislators to be well acquainted, educated and versed in religious values, so that when they are legislating they do not require the tutelage of religious scholars and authorities, and the same goes for politicians. There is no value to any religious observance that is motivated through coercion. It is of no use to turn those who are disobedient to God into hypocrites through the state’s coercive tools. People are created free and while it is possible to have control over their external aspects, it is impossible to do so over their inner selves and convictions.
This is exactly why we saw two models in dealing with issue of the headscarf/veil, the first is a veil that is dictated and imposed by the state and the second is a veil forbidden by it. Once I was in a Muslim country’s (in reference to Saudi Arabia?) airport where all women were covered, but as soon as the plane took off the veils flew away with it. This is a clear failure of that country’s educational system, which was unable to guarantee people’s religiosity except through coercive tools. In Ben Ali’s Tunisia, women were forbidden from wearing the veil and express themselves in whatever appearance they saw fit, also through the state’s coercive means. This was also a failure.
The primary orbit for religion is not the state’s apparatuses, but rather personal/individual convictions. The state’s duty, however, is to provide services to people before anything else, to create job opportunities, and to provide good health and education not to control people’s hearts and minds. For this reason, I have opposed the coercion of people in all its forms and manifestation and have dealt with such controversial topics such as al-Riddah (apostasy) and have defended the freedom of people to either adhere to or defect from a religious creed, based on the Qur’anic verse that says: ‘there is no compulsion in religion’.
There is no meaning in forcing people to become Muslims, the Muslim nation has in no need for hypocrites who manifest belief and conceal disbelief. Freedom is the primary value through which a person adheres to Islam, so he who announces his shahadatayn (‘I declare that there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his final Messenger’) does so on the basis of free choice underpinned by awareness and conviction. In this manner, the state is Islamic insofar that it assures its actions are in accordance with Islam’s values without being subjected to the tutelage of any religious institution for there is no such a thing in Islam. Rather there is a people and a nation who are the decision makers through their institutions.
When the Meccan people objected to Muhammad’s religion, he asked them not to interfere with his preaching activities and to allow him the freedom to communicate his message to the people. Had the Meccans accorded the Prophet (pbuh) the freedom of expression, he would not have immigrated and left his homeland. But because his message was so powerful, they could not offer an alternative to counteract it. This is why Muslims consider Islam’s proof to be so powerful that there is no need to coerce people, and when the voice of Islam proclaims ‘Produce your proof if ye are truthful’ this challenge is being proposed at the heart of the political and intellectual conflict.
Thus, the greater part of the debate taking place nowadays in our country is a misunderstanding of such concept as secularism and Islam. We demonstrated that secularism is not an atheist philosophy but merely a set of procedural arrangements designed to safeguard the freedom of belief and thought as Abd al-Wahhab al-Masiri distinguished, in his writings, between partial and total secularisms. An example of the latter would be the Jacobin model in French history. In their war on priesthood, the Jacobins’ raised the following slogan: “strangle the last king with the entrails of the last priest.” This is a French specificity and not the absolute definition of secularism. There is also an ambiguity regarding Islam, for there are those who believe that Islam can only be victorious by confiscating people’s freedom and imposing prayers, fasting, and the veil through force. This would be far from being a success, for Allah Almighty had considered hypocrisy to be the greatest crime, and the hellfire to be the eternal abode of Hypocrites.
The fact that our revolution has succeeded in toppling a dictator, we ought to accept the principle of citizenship, and that this country does not belong to one party or another but rather to all of its citizens regardless of their religion, sex, or any other consideration. Islam has bestowed on them the right to be citizens enjoying equal rights, and to believe in whatever they desire within the framework of mutual respect, and observance of the law which is legislated for by their representatives in parliament.
This is my understanding of things, and my view with regards to Islam’s relation to secularism. I hope that I have touched on the main issues, and I thank you profusely for your attention.
Transcripted and translated by: Brahim Rouabah/CSID
Regards

ZULKIFLI HASAN
University of Glasgow, Scotland
Islamic finance news
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March 18, 2012
DR. ZULKIFLI HASAN
Islamic Finance in Post-Revolution Tunisia and Egypt
Tunisia sets up Islamic finance working group
Available at:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/15/tunisia-islamic-finance-idUSL5E8EE3AP20120315
By Bernardo Vizcaino
(Reuters) – The Tunisian government has set up a working group that will study how to develop Islamic finance in the country, a finance ministry official said.
The group, which includes representatives from the central bank, stock exchange and private sector institutions including Bahrain-based Al Baraka Banking Group, will look at the country’s legal framework, said Karima Rezk, a director at the ministry.
Before last year’s uprisings, authoritarian governments in Tunisia and other North African countries restricted or refused to promote Islamic finance for ideological reasons. A moderate Islamist party dominates the government which took power through last October’s elections.
Islamic finance, which operates according to religious principles such as a ban on paying interest, is seen as “an important initiative that is accepted by all major political parties”, Rezk told Reuters in a telephone interview this week.
She added that the government did not intend to inhibit conventional banking in the country, but merely wanted to “make the market more dynamic and add choice to consumers”.
The working group aims to meet weekly and come up with proposals for action within a few months, Rezk said. It is under the purview of the finance ministry’s director-general Chaker Soltani, whose responsibilities include debt management and financial cooperation.
The group has been studying the Islamic banking experience of countries where the industry is well-developed, including Malaysia and Bahrain, as well as Jordan and Oman, which are more recent entrants into the industry.
“We need more details,” Rezk said, on both the structures of Islamic financial products and how to regulate them.
Soltani told Reuters earlier that the Tunisian government hoped eventually to issue sukuk (Islamic bonds), but did not expect to make an issue this year since the legal framework to support it was not yet in place.
“Before issuing Islamic bonds, or sukuk, we must put a law in place,” he said.
Egypt lays sukuk foundations
By Farah Halime Available at:
http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/industry-insights/economics/egypt-lays-sukuk-foundations#full
Egypt is solidifying rules and regulations that will allow companies to issue Islamic bonds, or sukuk, in an early sign it is positioning itself to tap into a boom in Islamic finance.
What rules and regulations does Egypt have for issuing sukuk, or Islamic bonds? Egypt has not sold sovereign or corporate bonds that comply with Islam’s ban on interest, although companies have sold conventional bonds. The executive regulation governing sukuk issuance in the country’s capital-market law is being redefined to make it easier for companies to push forward with sukuk issues. Ashraf Sharkawi, the head of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority, said this would be enforced by June, but until now companies have opted to steer clear of any issuance because of the lack of clarity in the law.
What will Egypt gain, considering it will compete with Islamic finance hubs such as nearby Bahrain? Analysts say demand for Sharia-compliant products alongside conventional banking products is on the increase, and with Egypt’s strategic position in North Africa and near the Middle East, it should tap into an ever-growing market. It is also a timely development because it fits in with the ideologies of what will be an Islamist-led government. The Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, has been advocating Islamic banking alongside its conventional counterpart and has seen an opportunity to promote sukuk in a country where the population regards many conventional banks with caution.
Outside of the Middle East and North Africa, what is the appetite for sukuk? Although Malaysia remains a dominant force in the sukuk market, new entrants are emerging from the Asia-Pacific region including South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan, and some African countries such as Senegal and Nigeria.
The North African nation will “by the end of June” finalise the executive regulations to allow companies to issue Islamic corporate bonds, or bonds that comply with the Islamic ban on interest, said Ashraf Sharkawi, the head of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority.
Alongside a sovereign sukuk worth US$2 billion (Dh7.34bn) announced by the Egyptian ministry of finance last month, analysts say the regulator’s move is ahead of the formation of an Islamist-dominated government expected to take office this year and an attempt to get a slice of the global sukuk market estimated to be valued at about $85bn.
Mr Sharkawi said the sukuk rules and regulations, which are still subject to approval from the prime minister, Kamal El Ganzouri, will help to boost liquidity on the Egyptian Exchange. The benchmark EGX 30 has gained almost 45 per cent in the year to date, making it the world’s best-performing stock market after a tumultuous performance last year.
A law that better regulates sukuk issuance has been mooted for several years, but analysts say the move to enforce a clear law has become a priority after the revolution, considering an economic climate likely to be shaped by Islamic political parties.
The Freedom and Justice Party has been outspoken about its ambitions to promote Islamic banking alongside conventional banking, and in May last year, Ashraf Badr El Din, the head of the party’s economic committee, first proposed the idea of selling Islamic bonds to plug the country’s budget deficit.
At the time, Mr Badr El Din said that a high percentage of Egyptians had reservations about the charging of interest and that such a financing tool would encourage them to invest. “The Muslim Brotherhood are eager to expedite the emergence of Islamic products such as sukuk law issuance to attract Arab investors and close the country’s deficit,” said Shahinaz Rashad, the general manager and director of global Islamic finance at Metropolitan Consulting. “There is a growing trend towards the revival of Islamic finance in light of the prominence of Islamic parties.”
Tapping into strong regional appetite for sukuk issuance, especially from the Gulf, is also a big driver for Egypt, said Mohammed Omran, the chairman of the Egyptian Exchange.
“We’re finding a new category of investment that meets some investors’ appetite or some investors’ beliefs like Sharia compliance or ethical investing,” Mr Omran said. “It’s going to attract a lot of Gulf investors to Egypt boosting liquidity all round.” A record volume of Sharia-compliant debt was sold globally last year, according to Zawya data. Sukuk totalling $84.4bn were sold in the period, an increase of 62 per cent from 2010. From that, $19bn, nearly 23 per cent of the total, was sold in the Gulf.
However, Egypt’s Islamic finance sector is still in its infancy, with just three listed Sharia-compliant banks – Al Baraka Egypt bank, Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt and National Bank for Development. Combined with the absence of enforced laws and regulations governing some Islamic financial instruments such as sukuk, analysts say it will be difficult for the country to forge a hub comparable to Bahrain and Malaysia, two of the world’s most successful Islamic banking centres.
“Egypt could become one of the largest Islamic banking markets, but I’m not so sure if it will become a hub,” said Abdul Kadir Hussain, the chief executive of Mashreq Capital, the investment and brokerage arm of Mashreq in Dubai. “In order to successfully become a hub you need infrastructure like tried and tested laws, settlement mechanisms and service providers, and Egypt has a long way to go before that,” Mr Hussain said, although he added the country was likely to play a “major role as a user and provider of Islamic capital” in the coming years.
A skeleton sukuk law has kept investors and companies that have considered issuing the bond at bay, but early investor appetite suggests Egypt could be well on its way by the end of the year.
Adnan Ahmed Yousif, the president and chief executive of Al Baraka banking group, Bahrain’s biggest publicly traded Islamic lender, which has a subsidiary in Egypt, said Egypt had potential for a vibrant sukuk market.
“We are trying to strengthen our relationship in the Egyptian market specially in Islamic products,” he said, adding the government would do well to use the sukuk market for future borrowing needs.
He said the bank’s Egyptian unit may sell dollar-denominated Islamic bonds, in the region of $200 million, in the fourth quarter of this year.
“If things go smoothly after June [when a president is expected to be elected], yes we will think about something in the fourth quarter,” Mr Yousif said.
Regards

ZULKIFLI HASA
Brussel, Belgium
Islamic finance news
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March 8, 2012
DR. ZULKIFLI HASAN
What We Need To Know About Arms Trade Treaty?
Isu Pengawalan Perdagangan Senjata Dunia: Apa Peranan Kita?
Zulkifli Hasan
Pendahuluan
Baru-baru ini dilaporkan bahawa Rusia dan China telah menggunakan kuasa veto untuk membatalkan resolusi Majlis Keselamatan Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (PBB) yang menyokong pelan Liga Arab untuk mendesak Presiden Syria Bashar Al Assad supaya berundur dan mengutuk keganasan kezaliman yang berlaku. Hingga kini dilaporkan lebih 6000 rakyat Syria telah terkorban semenjak Mac 2011 dan ribuan lagi telah tercedera, ditangkap dan hilang tanpa dapat dikesan.  Ramai yang tertanya-tanya mengapa dan kenapa negara-negara ini berbuat demikian. Sudah pasti mereka mempunyai sebab dan justifikasi terhadap tindakan mereka ini. Dilaporkan bahawa Rusia merupakan pembekal senjata dan rakan dagang utama Syria dalam membekalkan pelbagai jenis senjata kepada rejim Al Assad. Begitu juga di Bahrain, dalam keghairahan media barat mengutuk Iran untuk membangunkan tenaga nuklearnya, Amerika dalam masa yang sama telah membekalkan senjata yang besar jumlahnya kepada Bahrain.
Dunia telah menyaksikan bahawa abad ke 20 merupakan abad yang paling kejam dalam sejarah manusia dengan dua peperangan dunia, diikuti lebih 30 tahun perlumbaan senjata, perang teluk, perang Afghanistan, Perang Vietnam, Perang Iran-Iraq termasuk konflik dalaman, revolusi dan sebagainya. Program Penyelidikan Keamanan, Cornell Universiti di Amerika telah menganggarkan bahawa seramai 231 juta manusia telah terkorban melalui peperangan dan konflik sepanjang abad ke 20. Di antara faktor utama sejarah tragis manusia ini adalah kesan daripada perdagangan senjata. Perdagangan senjata yang sering kali dilihat sebagai langkah memperkuatkan sistem pertahanan dan perbelanjaan persenjataan atas dasar keselamatan sebenarnya hanya mencetuskan konflik dan pertumpahan darah.
Bagi membincangkan topik ini, penulis akan cuba berkongsi sedikit pengetahuan dan pengalaman mengenai peri pentingnya umat Islam untuk memberikan respon positif terhadap usaha-usaha ke arah pengawalan perdagangan senjata. Artikel ini akan menelusuri gerakan-gerakan di seluruh dunia yang giat memperjuangkan undang-undang pengawalan perdagangan senjata. Artikel ini juga akan meninjau realiti perdagangan senjata termasuk menampilkan aktor-aktor pengeluar senjata dan pelanggan tetap kepada saudagar senjata ini di seluruh dunia. Di samping itu, penulis juga akan berkongsi maklumat berkenaan dengan institusi dan badan yang aktif dan komited mengawal dan memantau perdagangan senjata dan juga entiti yang secara komperehensif merekod dan menyimpan data serta statistik perdagangan senjata di seluruh dunia. Di akhir penulisan, artikel ini secara ringkas akan membincangkan peranan umat Islam itu sendiri terhadap isu pengawalan perdagangan senjata ini.
Kenali Pengeluar dan Pelanggan Perdagangan Senjata
Adalah tidak mengejutkan bahawa, Amerika merupakan peneraju perdagangan senjata diikuti oleh Rusia, Britain dan Perancis. Maklumat mengenai Perdagangan Senjata dunia boleh diperolehi menerusi Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) sebuah badan bebas antarabangsa berpengkalan di Sweden yang mengkhusus kepada penyelidikan mengenai perdagangan senjata yang memantau dan mempunyai pengkalan data yang komprehensif mengenai perdagangan senjata dunia. Menurut SIPRI, direkodkan bahawa antara 1996-2000 perdagangan senjata dunia dipelopori oleh Amerika, Russia, Perancis yang mewakili 30%, diikuti oleh Britain dan Jerman, 20% dan Belanda, Ukraine, Italy, China, Belarus, Sepanyol dan Israel, 15%. Apa yang menarik dan dalam masa yang sama agak mengejutkan ialah negara-negara pengeluar senjata ini merupakan ahli tetap Majlis Keselamatan PBB iaitu mewakili 85% perdagangan senjata dunia. Sudah pasti fakta ini menimbulkan persoalan mengenai keberkesanan dan keadilan dalam Majlis Keselamatan PBB.
Dari aspek pengeluar senjata, terdapat tujuh syarikat  utama pengeluar senjata di dunia iaitu Lockheed Martin (Amerika) BAE Systems (Britain), Boeing (Amerika), Raytheon (US), General Dynamics (Amerika), Thomson-CSF (Perancis). Syarikat-syarikat ini secara aktif mempromosi dan membekalkan senjata di seluruh dunia. Terdapat juga individu pengusaha dan pembekal senjata yang beroperasi membekalkan senjata secara penyeludupan. Victor Bout seorang ikon saudagar senjata dunia yang telah membekalkan pelbagai jenis senjata di serata dunia akhirnya telah ditangkap di Thailand dan diekstradisi ke Amerika. Di antara 2005-2009, direkodkan bahawa negara utama pengguna dan yang melanggan senjata ialah Taiwan, Arab Saudi, Turki, Korea Selatan, India, Mesir, Israel, Pakistan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Greece, Singapura dan Algeria. Menurut ‘Congressional Research Service’, institusi yang menjalankan penyelidikan untuk kongres Amerika, nilai perdagangan senjata antarabangsa bagi 2010 sahaja telah mencecah USD35 bilion.
Selain daripada senjata berat, isu perdagangan senjata kecil juga perlu diambil perhatian kerana ianya juga sangat mempengaruhi dan kerap kali kematian diakibatkan oleh senjata sebegini. Panel Pakar PBB mengkategorikan senjata kecil ini kepada senjata yang digunakan oleh pihak polis dan tentera seperti pistol, rifel, bom tangan, mortar, gas pemedih mata dan lain-lain. Senjata kecil ini pada dasarnya bertujuan untuk menjaga ketenteraman awam dan memelihara keamanan. Namun demikian, dunia menyaksikan senjata ini akhirnya sering kali digunakan oleh pihak berkuasa menindas dan menzalimi orang awam. Pengeluar utama senjata seumpama ini ialah China, Russia dan Amerika. Kajian yang dibuat oleh ‘Graduate Institute of International Studies’ di Geneva menganggarkan bahawa sekurang-kuranya 550 juta pistol dan senjata seumpamanya yang terdapat di dunia iaitu mewakili satu senjata bagi setiap 11 penduduk dunia. ’Small Arms Survey’ yang dijalankan oleh institusi ini pula melaporkan bahawa nilai perdagangan senjata kecil ini adalah melebihi USD7 bilion setahun. Ironinya ialah sebanyak USD2.4 bilion telah diperuntukkan pada 2010 untuk pembelian senjata kecil ini seperti gas pemedih mata, kereta perisai dan senjata lain telah dijual kepada Negara yang mengalami krisis dan konflik seperti Bahrain, Mesir, Libya, Syria dan Yaman. Ini menunjukkan bahawa oleh kerana tiadanya undang-undang antarabangsa pengawalan perdagangan senjata yang boleh menghalang penjualan senjata kepada negara-negara yang secara jelas melanggar hak asasi manusia telah mengakibatkan krisis dan konflik yang berterusan di negara-negara berkenaan.
Implikasi Perdagangan Senjata
Persepsi yang selalu menjadi tanggapan umum terhadap persenjataan ialah senjata adalah untuk keselamatan. Bagi negara pengeluar senjata, industri ini dapat menjana ekonomi dan memberi hasil kepada negara termasuk mencipta peluang pekerjaan. Tetapi tahukah anda bahawa sekitar 2,000 orang mati setiap hari akibat dari perdagangan senjata ini. Industri pembuatan senjata juga tidak banyak menyumbang kepada ekonomi dan sebenarnya tidak menjana peluang pekerjaan yang signifikan. Ini memandangkan industri senjata ini dikategorikan sebagai industri berteknologi tinggi dan tidak memerlukan pekerja yang ramai. Sekiranya dibandingkan antara maslahah dan mafsadah industri ini, didapati terlalu banyak implikasi negatif secara langsung atau tidak langsung melalui urusniaga perdagangan senjata ini.
Jika diteliti dan dianalisis secara telus, hakikatnya perdagangan senjata ini boleh memberikan implikasi yang sangat negatif dan amat berpotensi untuk mencetuskan konflik. Umpamanya pada 1998, terdapat 11 konflik senjata di Afrika. Bagaimana hal ini boleh berlaku? Di antara faktor utama konflik ini ialah pihak yang bermusuhan memiliki armada tentera dan persenjataan yang mencukupi. Dilaporkan antara 1989-1998, Amerika telah memperuntukkan USD227 juta untuk latihan ketenteraan dan senjata bagi tentera-tentera di beberapa negara di Afrika. Daripada jumlah ini sebanyak USD111 juta digunakan untuk peperangan yang berlaku di Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Burundi, Chad Namibia, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda dan Zimbabwe.
Perdagangan senjata ini juga boleh mempengaruhi dasar dan peruntukan kewangan negara. Peruntukan perbelanjaan untuk persenjataan yang berlebihan akan menjejaskan agenda pembangunan sesebuah negara. Menurut Laporan Setiausaha Agung PBB kepada Majlis Keselamatan berkenaan dengan senjata kecil (S/2008/258) melaporkan bahawa perbelanjaan senjata terutamanya di negara dunia ketiga dan membangun menyebabkan kekayaan negara tidak dapat disalurkan kepada pembangunan sosial. PBB merekodkan bahawa lebih 1 bilion penduduk hidup di bawah paras kemiskinan iaitu pendapatan kurang daripada USD1 sehari sedangkan USD184 setahun diperuntukkan bagi perbelanjaan senjata bagi setiap individu di muka bumi ini. Amat malang kerana fenomena perbelanjaan persenjataan yang keterlaluan ini juga berlaku di negara membangun dan mengalami krisis kemanusiaan. ‘Global  Fire Power’, sebuah laman sesawang yang mempunyai pengkalan data mengenai maklumat umum pertahanan negara di dunia, merekodkan tatkala Pakistan dan Mesir dilanda krisis pengangguran dan masalah ekonomi, kedua-dua negara ini telah memperuntukkan jumlah wang yang besar untuk ketenteraan dan masing-masing kini menduduki tangga ke 15 dan 16 dunia dari segi kekuatan angkatan tentera. Lebih mengejutkan lagi ialah daripada jumlah pasaran senjata dunia, 10 negara membangun yang mengalami masalah ekonomi dan kemanusiaan adalah mewakili 60% daripada jumlah pasaran senjata bagi tahun 2003-2010.
Perkembangan perbelanjaan senjata yang berlebihan untuk tujuan keselamatan juga mengakibatkan peruntukan yang sepatutnya disalurkan kepada sektor pembangunan dan kebajikan tidak dapat dimanfaatkan. Sebagai contoh, harga bagi 30 buat jet Sukhoi-30 MKI buatan Rusia ialah USD1.8 bilion. Peruntukan sebanyak ini sebenarnya boleh disalurkan untuk membiayai persekolahan rendah selama setahun bagi 20 juta kanak-kanak. Harga bagi 310 kereta kebal T-90S buatan Russia ialah USD600 juta dan sekiranya wang ini digunakan untuk tujuan kesihatan ianya boleh dibelanjakan untuk membiayai pembelian 200 juta ‘insecticide-treated nets; yang mampu mengurangkan kematian akibat malaria. Nilai bagi 6 buah kapal selam buatan Perancis ialah USD1.8 bilion. Peruntukan sebanyak ini mampu untuk membantu dalam proses rawatan 1.7 bilion kanak-kanak yang mengidap ‘debilitating intestinal worms’ selama 3 tahun. Harga bagi sepuluh jet pejuang Mirage-2000E buatan Perancis ialah USD325 juta. Dianggarkan wang ini cukup untuk membekalkan vitamin dan mineral yang diperlukan bagi 1 bilion orang selama 10 tahun. Peruntukan untuk membeli 66 Jet Pejuang Hawk fighter buatan Britain ialah USD1.7 bilion. Perbelanjaan ini hakikatnya mampu untuk membiayai ‘antiretroviral AIDS drugs’ bagi lebih 11 juta pesakit AIDS selama setahun. Fakta dan angka ini kadang-kadang amat menggerunkan kerana kita dapat menyaksikan betapa rakusnya manusia terhadap kuasa hingga sanggup mengenepikan keperluan yang lebih mendesak seperti kesihatan, pendidikan dan pembangunan sosio ekonomi masyarakat.
Di antara implikasi negatif yang sering juga terjadi berikutan kegiatan perdagangan senjata ialah meningkatnya indeks rasuah. Perdagangan senjata sering melibatkan pihak tengah, tidak telus, bersifat rahsia dan sangat berpotensi menyumbang ke arah amalan rasuah. Dilaporkan bahawa terdapat lebih 50% tuduhan rasuah melibatkan perdagangan senjata. Amalan industri perdagangan senjata yang tidak telus dan keghairahan pihak tertentu untuk memiliki senjata berteknologi tinggi dan terkini menyemarakkan lagi anasir rasuah yang akhirnya menelan perbelanjaan yang besar bagi bajet sesebuah Negara. Berdasarkan kepada faktor ini, seharusnya sesuatu perlu dilakukan bagi memantau industri senjata dan juga mewujudkan satu undang-undang antarabangsa untuk mengawal perdagangan senjata di dunia. Sekurang-kurangnya, undang-undang antarabangsa yang bersifat universal ini akan sedikit sebanyak dapat mengurangkan perdagangan senjata yang tidak bertanggungjawab dan beretika.
Perkembangan Pengawalan Perdagangan Senjata
Pada hari ini, didapati tiada satu perjanjian yang bersifat global dan mengikat mengenai pengawalan perdagangan senjata. Gerakan dan aktivisme pengawalan perdagangan senjata ini secara rasminya bermula pada 1997 di New York hasil inisiatif  sekumpulan Pemenang Nobel Perdamaian dan ‘International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War’ (IPPNW) yang mengesyorkan untuk mewujudkan Kod Etika Perdagangan Senjata. Selepas kempen dan promosi oleh pelbagai badan bukan kerajaan dan masyarakat sivil antarabangsa, saranan ini kemudiannya diterima oleh PBB dalam resolusi 61/89 pada 18 Disember 2006.
Tarikh 30 Oktober 2009 menjadi detik sejarah apabila Perhimpunan Agung PBB dengan 151 undi akhirnya telah bersetuju mengguna pakai Resolusi A/Res/64/48 untuk menerima usul ke arah mewujudkan Perjanjian Pengawalan Perdagangan Senjata (Arms Trade Treaty). PBB juga bersetuju untuk meneruskan proses memperincikan Perjanjian ini dengan menganjurkan beberapa mesyuarat Jawatankuasa Pemandu pada 2010 dan 2011. Kini Perjanjian ini berada diperingkat akhir pengemaskinian dan PBB akan menganjurkan konferen khas pada Julai 2012 bagi menggubal Perjanjian atau Instrumen yang bakal mengikat semua negara sama ada pengeluar atau pengguna senjata mengenai undang-undang pengawalan perdagangan senjata.
Secara umumnya, Perjanjian Pengawalan Perdagangan Senjata ini bertujuan untuk menghentikan pertambahan perdagangan senjata, menghalang penyalahgunaan senjata dan menyediakan peruntukan undang-undang bagi mengawal perdagangan senjata. Perjanjian ini akan memastikan senjata tidak berpindah kepada pihak yang tidak bertanggungjawab. Di antara kandungan utama Perjanjian ini ialah sebarang perdagangan senjata adalah tidak dibenarkan sama sekali dan melanggar undang-undang antarabangsa sekiranya ianya melibatkan pihak-pihak yang boleh menjejaskan pembangunan sosial dan bertentangan dengan hak asasi manusia. Di antara mekanisme untuk merealisasikan matlamat ini, Perjanjian ini akan menyediakan garis panduan perdagangan senjata secara komprehensif yang perlu dipatuhi oleh semua pihak. Perjanjian senjata ini juga akan memastikan bahawa tiada perdagangan senjata yang melibatkan risiko kemanusiaan dan ini termasuk sekiranya perdagangan senjata tersebut bertentangan dengan hak asasi manusia antarabangsa, tergolong dalam jenayah kemanusiaan atau ‘genocide; potensi untuk menjana jenayah terancang dan boleh menjejaskan kedudukan ekonomi sosial dan pembangunan.
Setakat ini, gerakan ke arah penggubalan dan termeterainya Perjanjian ini hinggi kini dimainkan oleh badan bukan kerajaan terutamanya institusi keagamaan. Penulis berkesempatan menghadiri program seumpama ini dan telah berinteraksi dengan pimpinan agama dari seluruh dunia bersama-sama merancang gerakan dan strategi untuk mempromosikan aktivisme ke arah keamanan sejagat. Di Sweden, ‘Swedish Fellowship of Reconciliation’ (SWEFOR) dan ‘Church of Sweden’ sangat giat mengatur strategi dan program bagi memberikan kesedaran terhadap peri pentingnya isu pengawalan perdagangan senjata ini. Di Amerika, ‘Global Youth Network of Religions for Peace’ secara aktif terlibat dalam gerakan mempromosi Perjanjian Pengawalan Perdagangan Senjata ini dan menganjurkan pelbagai program berkaitan. Di Malaysia, Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia telah menjalinkan kerjasama dengan pelbagai badan bukan kerajaan dari seluruh dunia dan merangka beberapa agenda gerakan bagi tujuan mempromosi inisiatif Pengawalan perdagangan Senjata ini. Di India, ‘Asian Muslim Action Network’ di antara organisasi yang serius mengatur program bagi tujuan yang sama. Satu Deklarasi menyokong Perjanjian Pengawalan Perdagangan Senjata ini juga telah ditandatangani oleh 40 pimpinan agama dan 70 institusi keagamaan dari seluruh dunia hasil inisiatif SWEFOR, ’Caritas France’, ‘CCFD-Terre Solidaire’ dan ‘Interfaith Working Group of the Control Arms Coalition’ pada 21 September 2011. Di peringkat Asia Pasifik, satu bengkel intensif telah dianjurkan pada 26-27 Januari di Bangkok dengan melibatkan perwakilan dari seluruh dunia untuk merangka gerak kerja seterusnya. Ini diikuti dengan konferen di Manila yang akan diadakan pada 11-13 Mac 2012. Usaha-usaha sebegini semakin giat dijalankan oleh masyarakat antarabangsa dan sehingga kini ianya mendapat sambutan yang amat baik di seluruh dunia.
Respon Terhadap Isu Pengawalan Perdagangan Senjata
Mahu tidak mahu, umat Islam di dunia perlu mengakui bahawa negara-negara Islam merupakan di antara pelanggan dan pengguna terbesar senjata. Arab Saudi, Bahrain, UAE, Malaysia termasuk negara-negara miskin seperti  Pakistan, Syria, Mesir dan Yaman merupakan negara yang berbelanja besar bagi maksud persenjataan. Kerap kali alasan yang sering diberikan atas pembelian senjata ini ialah atas faktor keselamatan. Ada juga yang memberikan justifikasi keselamatan dan ancaman Israel, konflik sempadan dan keperluan pertahanan negara.
Namun sekiranya dilihat dan diperhatikan, bahawa sebenarnya tidak terdapat keperluan yang menghambat untuk membeli persenjataan ini secara besar-besaran hingga mengabaikan tangungjawab yang lebih utama. Bahkan, apa yang berlaku ialah senjata-senjata ini kerap kali digunakan untuk hal ehwal dalaman malahan menzalimi rakyat dan orang awam. Umpamanya di Libya, Mesir dan Syria, pihak kerajaan telah menggunakan senjata yang dibeli bukan untuk tujuan keselamatan negara tetapi atas dasar ingin mempertahankan kuasa dan telah menelan ribuan nyawa rakyatnya sendiri. Oleh itu, alasan faktor keselamatan negara untuk berbelanja besar dalam pembelian senjata tidak boleh diterima secara bulat bahkan boleh dipertikaikan. Sebagai contoh, Amerika merupakan pengeksport utama senjata kepada Mesir termasuk memberikan dana ketenteraan dan persenjataan sebanyak USD1.3 bilion setahun. Manakala 10 negara pengeluar senjata telah membekalkan senjata kepada Libya semenjak 2005 hingga sekarang iaitu Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain and the UK.  India, Perancis, dan Rusia telah membekalkan bahan letupan dan pelbagai senjata lain ke Syria. Kesannya apa yang dapat dilihat ialah, tragedi kemanusiaan yang telah berlaku di mana kehilangan nyawa ribuan orang awam termasuk kanak-kanak dan wanita serta kerosakan infrastruktur awam yang hanya memburukkan lagi keadaan di negara-negara yang mengalami konflik dalaman ini.
Di antara prinsip utama yang sangat ditekankan oleh Islam ialah pro kepada keamanan, maslahah ummah, pembangunan, hak asasi manusia dan keadilan. Dalam konteks perdagangan senjata ini, umat Islam juga dituntut untuk memperjuangkan keamanan dan menolak sebarang bentuk keganasan. Ini bertepatan dengan firman Allah di dalam surah al Baqarah ayat 190 yang bermaksud: ”Dan perangilah kerana (menegakkan dan mempertahankan) ugama Allah akan orang-orang yang memerangi kamu, dan janganlah kamu menceroboh (dengan memulakan peperangan); kerana sesungguhnya Allah tidak suka kepada orang-orang yang menceroboh”. Bahkan dalam ayat yang lain, al Quran jelas menggariskan kepentingan memelihara keamanan dan memperjuangkan keadilan seperti firman Allah di dalam surah al Maidah ayat 32 yang bermaksud: ”Dengan sebab (kisah pembunuhan kejam) yang demikian itu kami tetapkan atas Bani Israil, bahawasanya sesiapa yang membunuh seorang manusia dengan tiada alasan yang membolehkan membunuh orang itu, atau (kerana) melakukan kerosakan di muka bumi, maka seolah-olah dia telah membunuh manusia semuanya; dan sesiapa yang menjaga keselamatan hidup seorang manusia, maka seolah-olah dia telah menjaga keselamatan hidup manusia semuanya. Dan demi sesungguhnya, telah datang kepada mereka Rasul-rasul kami dengan membawa keterangan yang cukup terang; kemudian, sesungguhnya kebanyakan dari mereka sesudah itu, sungguh-sungguh menjadi orang-orang yang melampaui batas (melakukan kerosakan) di muka bumi”. Bersesuaian dengan intipati ayat di atas, bolehlah disimpulkan bahawa usaha-usaha ke arah menjamin keamanan melalui sokongan terhadap inisiatif Perjanjian Pengawalan Perdagangan Senjata adalah selari dengan ajaran Islam bahkan ianya merupakan perkara yang sangat dituntut.
Setelah memahami topik Pengawalan Perdagangan Senjata ini, timbul persoalan mengenai pendekatan atau langkah yang boleh dilaksanakan bagi tujuan ini. Bagi menjawab persoalan ini, perkara utama yang perlu diberikan perhatian ialah usaha-usaha memupuk kesedaran yang tinggi terhadap isu perdagangan senjata ini. Ini boleh dimulakan di antaranya melalui program untuk mempromosi Perjanjian Perdagangan Senjata di segenap peringkat termasuk perkongsian maklumat mengenai implikasi negatif berikutan tiadanya undang-undang khusus antarabangsa dalam hal ini. Selain daripada itu, masyarakat juga perlu sentiasa memantau perbelanjaan dan bajet negara terhadap peruntukan bagi maksud persenjataan. Perbelanjaan yang besar untuk pembelian senjata hingga menjejaskan peruntukan sektor utama negara seperti pendidikan, kesihatan dan lain-lain seharusnya dielakkan. Oleh kerana isu keamanan ini merentasi sempadan agama, bangsa dan ideologi, kerjasama yang berbentuk universal untuk melobi dan mempengaruhi masyarakat antarabangsa menerima Perjanjian Pengawalan Perdagangan Senjata di segenap peringkat dan lapisan masyarakat perlu dipergiatkan.
Kesimpulan
Isu perdagangan senjata sama ada secara sah atau haram merupakan perkara yang perlu diberi perhatian oleh semua pihak. Di antara punca keganasan dan pembunuhan serta penindasan yang berlaku di seluruh dunia adalah berpunca daripada perdagangan senjata yang tidak beretika. Negara-negara kaya menjadi pengeluar senjata dan menikmati keuntungan yang berlipat ganda melalui penjualan senjata terutamanya kepada negara-negara membangun dan dunia ketiga. Hasil negara yang sepatutnya digunakan untuk tujuan pembangunan terpaksa digadaikan untuk tujuan pembelian senjata atas nama keselamatan. Bahkan dalam konteks negara-negara Islam, alasan ancaman Israel juga kerap kali menjadi justifikasi untuk berbelanja secara besar-besaran membeli kelengkapan senjata. Alasan ini sebenarnya kadang kala adalah bersifat delusi dan khayalan, pada hakikatnya dunia menyaksikan kerap kali senjata yang dibeli ini telah digunakan untuk menzalimi dan menindas rakyat sendiri seperti apa yang berlaku di Mesir, Libya dan Syria. Sudah sampai masanya, umat Islam untuk bangun dari dibuai mimpi ini. Gerakan pro-keamanan dan mendesak adanya Perjanjian Perdagangan untuk mengawal perdagangan senjata ini perlu diberikan perhatian dan sokongan. Di samping teruja dengan inisiatif Perjanjian Pengawalan Perdagangan Senjata ini, masyarakat antarabangsa juga perlu memastikan bahawa pelaksanaan undang-undang antarabangsa ini adalah berpaksikan kepada keadilan dan tidak bersifat partisan serta berpihak. Ianya harus terpakai kepada semua negara di dunia termasuk negara pengeluar senjata dan perhatian serius dan khusus sewajibnya diberikan kepada negara-negara yang kerap kali melanggar hak asasi manusia, mencetuskan konflik serta sering melancarkan keganasan seperti Israel yang secara terus terang tidak menghormati kehormatan Palestin.
Best Regards

ZULKIFLI HASAN
With Dr. Ashgar Ali Engineer, Founding Chairman of Asian Muslim Action Network in Bangkok, Thailand
Islamic finance news
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March 7, 2012
DR. ZULKIFLI HASAN
Between the Goldman Sukuk and the Goldman’s Secret Greece Loan
Goldman’s Secret Greece Loan Reveals Sinners
(Note: This article should be read together with another article
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By Nicholas Dunbar and Elisa Martinuzzi -Available at:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-06/goldman-secret-greece-loan-shows-two-sinners-as-client-unravels.html
Greece’s secret loan from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) was a costly mistake from the start.

On the day the 2001 deal was struck, the government owed the bank about 600 million euros ($793 million) more than the 2.8 billion euros it borrowed, said Spyros Papanicolaou, who took over the country’s debt-management agency in 2005. By then, the price of the transaction, a derivative that disguised the loan and that Goldman Sachs persuaded Greece not to test with competitors, had almost doubled to 5.1 billion euros, he said.
Papanicolaou and his predecessor, Christoforos Sardelis, revealing details for the first time of a contract that helped Greece mask its growing sovereign debt to meet European Union requirements, said the country didn’t understand what it was buying and was ill-equipped to judge the risks or costs.

“The Goldman Sachs deal is a very sexy story between two sinners,” Sardelis, who oversaw the swap as head of Greece’s Public Debt Management Agency from 1999 through 2004, said in an interview.

Goldman Sachs’s instant gain on the transaction illustrates the dangers to clients who engage in complex, tailored trades that lack comparable market prices and whose fees aren’t disclosed. Harvard University, Alabama’s Jefferson County and the German city of Pforzheim all have found themselves on the losing end of the one-of-a-kind private deals typically pitched to them by securities firms as means to improve their finances.
Goldman Sachs DNA
“Like the municipalities, Greece is just another example of a poorly governed client that got taken apart,” Satyajit Das, a risk consultant and author of “Extreme Money: Masters of the Universe and the Cult of Risk,” said in a phone interview. “These trades are structured not to be unwound, and Goldman is ruthless about ensuring that its interests aren’t compromised — it’s part of the DNA of that organization.”
A gain of 600 million euros represents about 12 percent of the $6.35 billion in revenue Goldman Sachs reported for trading and principal investments in 2001, a business segment that includes the bank’s fixed-income, currencies and commodities division, which arranged the trade and posted record sales that year. The unit, then run by Lloyd C. Blankfein, 57, now the New York-based bank’s chairman and chief executive officer, also went on to post record quarterly revenue the following year.
‘Extremely Profitable’
The Goldman Sachs transaction swapped debt issued by Greece in dollars and yen for euros using an historical exchange rate, a mechanism that implied a reduction in debt, Sardelis said. It also used an off-market interest-rate swap to repay the loan. Those swaps allow counterparties to exchange two forms of interest payment, such as fixed or floating rates, referenced to a notional amount of debt.
The trading costs on the swap rose because the deal had a notional value of more than 15 billion euros, more than the amount of the loan itself, said a former Greek official with knowledge of the transaction who asked not to be identified because the pricing was private. The size and complexity of the deal meant that Goldman Sachs charged proportionately higher trading fees than for deals of a more standard size and structure, he said.
“It looks like an extremely profitable transaction for Goldman,” said Saul Haydon Rowe, a partner in Devon Capital LLP, a London-based firm that advises global investors on derivatives disputes.
Disappearing Debt
Goldman Sachs declined to comment about how much it made on the swaps. Fiona Laffan, a spokeswoman for the firm in London, said the agreements were executed in accordance with guidelines provided by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical agency.
“Greece actually executed the swap transactions to reduce its debt-to-gross-domestic-product ratio because all member states were required by the Maastricht Treaty to show an improvement in their public finances,” Laffan said in an e- mail. “The swaps were one of several techniques that many European governments used to meet the terms of the treaty.”
Cross-currency swaps are contracts borrowers use to convert foreign currency debt into a domestic-currency obligation using the market exchange rate. As first reported in 2003, Goldman Sachs used a fictitious, historical exchange rate in the swaps to make about 2 percent of Greece’s debt disappear from its national accounts. To repay the 2.8 billion euros it borrowed from the bank, Greece entered into a separate swap contract tied to interest-rate swings.
Falling bond yields caused that bet to sour, and tweaks to the deal failed to prevent the debt from almost doubling in size by the time the swap was restructured in August 2005.
Greece, which last month secured a second, 130 billion-euro bailout, is sitting on debt equal to about 160 percent of its GDP as of last year.
Eurostat Rules
Under Eurostat accounting rules, nations were permitted until 2008 to use so-called off-market rates in swaps to manage their debt. Greek officials, including Sardelis, say they learned that other EU countries such as Italy had employed similar methods to shrink their debts, taking advantage of the secrecy of over-the-counter derivatives compared with swaps traded on exchanges.
Eurostat said Greece didn’t report the Goldman Sachs transactions in 2008 when the agency told countries to restate their accounts.
“The Greek authorities had never informed Eurostat about this complex issue and no opinion on the accounting treatment had been requested,” the Luxembourg-based agency said in a statement last month.

Eurostat said it had only “general” discussions with financial institutions on its debt and deficit guidelines when the swap was executed in 2001. “It is possible that Goldman Sachs asked us for general clarifications,” Eurostat said, declining to elaborate.
Loudiadis Role
Bloomberg News filed a lawsuit at the EU’s General Court seeking disclosure of European Central Bank documents on Greece’s use of derivatives to hide loans. Releasing such information could damage the commercial interests of the ECB’s counterparties, hurt banks and markets, and undermine the economic policy of Greece and the EU, the central bank said last May in a response to the suit. A judgment is pending.
Sardelis, 61, and Papanicolaou, 72, said several banks, including Goldman Sachs, made proposals to manage Greece’s debt. The bank was represented by its top European sales executive at the time, Addy Loudiadis. She was trusted, said Papanicolaou, because she had helped price competitors’ derivatives and in 1999 warned the Greeks against buying a complex swap.
Sardelis, a former bank economist, described Loudiadis, who’s based in London, as “very professional — a little bit aggressive as is everyone at Goldman Sachs.”
‘Teaser Rate’
The derivative Loudiadis offered Sardelis in 2001 was also complex. Designed to provide a cheap way to repay 2.8 billion euros, the swap had a “teaser rate,” or a three-year grace period, after which Greece would have 15 years to repay Goldman Sachs, Sardelis said. All in, the deal appeared cheap to officials at the time, he said.
“We calculated that this had an extra cost above our normal funding cost on the yield curve of 15 basis points,” Sardelis said. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.
Loudiadis, now CEO of Rothesay Life, a Goldman Sachs unit that insures longevity risk for U.K. corporate pension plans, declined to comment, a company spokeswoman said.
‘Very Bad Bet’
Sardelis said he realized three months after the deal was signed that it was more complex than he appreciated. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., bond yields plunged as stock markets sold off worldwide. That caused a mark-to-market loss on the swap for Greece because of the formula used by Goldman Sachs to compute Greece’s repayments over time.
“If you calculated that when we did it, it looked very nice because the yield curve had a certain shape,” Sardelis said. “But after Sept. 11, we realized this would be the wrong formula. So after we discussed it with Goldman Sachs, we decided to change to a simpler formula.”
The revised deal proposed by the bank and executed in 2002, was to base repayments on what was then a new kind of derivative — an inflation swap linked to the euro-area harmonized index of consumer prices. An inflation swap is a financial bet that pays off according to the degree to which a consumer-price index exceeds or falls short of a pre-specified level at maturity.
That didn’t work out well for Greece either. Bond yields fell, pushing the government’s losses to 5.1 billion euros, according to an analysis commissioned by Papanicolaou. It was “a very bad bet,” he said in an interview.
“This is even more reprehensible,” Papanicolaou said of the revised deal. “Goldman asked them to make a change that actually made things even worse because they went into an inflation swap.”
Confidentiality Requirement
Greece was handicapped, in part, by the terms Goldman Sachs imposed, he said.“Sardelis couldn’t actually do what every debt manager should do when offered something, which is go to the market to check the price,” said Papanicolaou, who retired in 2010. “He didn’t do that because he was told by Goldman that if he did that, the deal is off.”
Sardelis declined to comment about the analysis, as did Petros Christodoulou, director general of the debt-management agency since February 2010.
It isn’t unusual for dealers to impose confidentiality requirements on clients in complex transactions to prevent traders from using the information to front-run or trade against the bank arranging and hedging the deal, said a former official who analyzed the swap and asked not to be named because the details are private.
‘Large Number’
Goldman Sachs’s initial 600 million-euro gross profit “sounds like a large number, but you have to take into account what the bank will be setting aside as a credit reserve, the cost to Goldman to fund the loan and the cost of hedging the currency component,” said Peter Shapiro, managing director of Swap Financial Group LLC in South Orange, New Jersey, an independent swaps adviser. “It’s hard to tell what the profit margin would have been.”
The report Papanicolaou commissioned after taking over the agency showed the repayment formula meant that Greece would have to pay Goldman Sachs 400 million euros a year, he said. The coupon and the mark-to-market swings on the swap prompted George Alogoskoufis, then finance minister, to decide to restructure the deal again to limit losses, Papanicolaou said.
Loudiadis and a team of Goldman Sachs advisers returned to Athens in August 2005, according to former Greek officials. The agreement they reached to transfer the swap to National Bank of Greece SA and extend the maturity to 2037 from 2019, gave the Greeks what they wanted, Papanicolaou said.
‘Squeeze Taxpayers’
The 5.1 billion-euro mark-to-market value of the swap was “locked in,” Papanicolaou said. It was that politically motivated decision to restructure and fix the increased market value that did as much damage as the original swap, said Sardelis, now a board member of Ethniki General Insurance Co., a subsidiary of National Bank of Greece.
“You can’t have prudent debt management if you change all the assumptions all the time,” he said.

Gustavo Piga, a professor of economics at University of Rome Tor Vergata and author of “Derivatives and Public Debt Management,” sees a different lesson.
“In secret deals, intermediaries have the upper hand and use it to squeeze taxpayers,” Piga said in an interview. “The bargaining power is in investment banks’ hands.”
Best Regards

ZULKIFLI HASAN
Aberystwyth, Wales
Islamic finance news
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March 4, 2012
DR. ZULKIFLI HASAN
Islamic Finance: Where are we going?
KE MANA ARAH TUJU KEWANGAN ISLAM?
Zulkifli Hasan
Pendahuluan
Baru-baru ini Persatuan Pengguna Islam Malaysia telah mengejutkan masyarakat Malaysia khususnya kepada industri kewangan Islam dengan laporan telah menerima lebih 4000 aduan sejak 2003 hingga 2012 mengenai ketidakpuashatian pelanggan dengan sistem perbankan Islam. Kenyataan PPIM yang sangat keras dengan menuduh bank-bank Islam menggunakan nama Islam untuk mencapai keuntungan melampau ini tidak boleh dipandang enteng dan remeh oleh pengamal kewangan Islam dan pihak berautoriti seperti Bank Negara Malaysia serta institusi berkaitan seperti Pertubuhan Perbankan Islam Malaysia dan Pertubuhan Penasihat Syariah Malaysia.
Berdasarkan kepada perkara di atas, penulis akan cuba secara ringkas untuk menelusuri dan menilai semula perkembangan dan amalan kewangan Islam di Malaysia setelah ianya dilaksanakan lebih 37 tahun yang lalu. Artikel ini akan meninjau dan mendedahkan kritikan-kritikan yang berterusan mengenai pelaksanaan kewangan Islam yang dikatakan semakin hari semakin jauh daripada aspirasi keadilan ekonomi dan sosial yang digariskan oleh teras dan fundamental ekonomi Islam. Penulisan ini bukan bertujuan untuk menjatuhkan dan mencemarkan perkembangan kewangan Islam tetapi sekadar peringatan dan rasa keprihatinan terhadap peri pentingnya industri ini untuk menilai kembali arah tuju pelaksanaan dan amalannya.
Kritikan Terhadap Kewangan Islam
Semasa kunjungan Profesor Yusuf Qaradawi ke Malaysia bersempena menerima Anugerah Tokoh Maal Hijrah pada 2009, beliau secara peribadi ada menyatakan kebimbangan dan keperihatinan terhadap pelaksanaan sistem kewangan Islam. Terdapat beberapa aspek yang perlu dinilai semula demi memastikan hala tuju kewangan Islam ini benar-benar dapat menyumbang kepada pembangunan sosio ekonomi masyarakat dan memberikan keadilan sosial. Sehubungan dengan perkara ini, penulis akan membincangkan secara ringkas tentang kritikan-kritikan yang telah diutarakan terhadap pelaksanaan dan amalan kewangan Islam. Kritikan-kritikan ini adalah sangat bermanfaat untuk diketengahkan kerana ianya boleh dijadikan sebagai kayu ukur dan asas kepada penambahbaikan serta penentu arah tuju industri kewangan Islam. Setelah meneliti dan membuat sorotan literatur dalam topik ini, kritikan terhadap kewangan Islam secara umumnya dapat dibahagikan kepada beberapa aspek iaitu epistemologi, ’model’ atau pendekatan, produk, metodologi, ’governance’ atau tadbir urus dan pembangunan sosio-ekonomi.
Perkara yang kurang mendapat perhatian dalam ’discourse’ atau pentas perbincangan mengenai kewangan Islam ialah aspek epistemologinya. Tatkala banyak literatur atau rujukan dan bahan ilmiah mengenai segenap aspek kewangan Islam, didapati amat sedikit perbincangan secara serius dari aspek epistemologi atau falsafahnya. Umumnya, pengamal kewangan Islam termasuk ahli akademik tidak ramai yang memberikan perhatian dan mempunyai kefahaman yang mendalam dalam aspek epistemologi ini. Implikasinya ialah didapati pelaksanaan kewangan Islam pada hari ini dilihat lebih cenderung ke arah mempunyai satu dimensi utiliti yang menjadi teras ekonomi kapitalis iaitu memaksimakan utiliti individual ’homo economicus’.

Berbanding sistem kewangan konvensional yang berepistemologikan ’secular approach’ (pendekatan sekular) dan ’humanistic approach’ (pendekatan kemanusiaan), epistemologi Tauhid ’Faith-based epistemologi’ merupakan asas sistem kewangan Islam. Epistemologi Tauhid yang menjadi teras dan falsafah prinsip-prinsip muamalat Islam sepatutnya menjadi aspirasi pengamal kewangan Islam untuk meletakkan maqasid syariah pertimbangan utama dalam setiap perancangan yang hendak dilaksanakan. Dalam hal ini, Profesor Masudul Alam Chowdhury menyatakan bahawa kewangan Islam hanya akan beroperasi secara efisyen di dalam ruang lingkup epistemologi Tauhid yang menuntut semua pengamal kewangan Islam bertindak sebagai khalifah yang mempunyai ’taklif’ atau tanggungjawab kepada semua manusia di muka bumi ini. Epistemologi Tauhid ini adalah sangat unik dan menyeluruh di mana ianya menekankan dua dimensi utiliti iaitu kepentingan untuk mendapatkan kejayaan di dunia dan akhirat.
Kritikan terhadap kewangan Islam dari sudut ’theoretical approach’ atau pendekatan teoritikal merujuk kepada model pelaksanaan dan amalannya. Pada hakikatnya, cendiakawan ekonomi Islam seperti Professor Umer Chapra dan Professor Nejatullah Siddiqi yang dianggap sebagai ’founding father’ kepada kewangan Islam mengusulkan pendekatan kewangan Islam dalam kerangka ’ekuiti’ atau perkongsian iaitu ’two-tier mudharabah’. Mufti Taqi Usmani bersependapat dalam hal ini dan telah menyatakan pandangan beliau bahawa pendekatan dalam kerangka ’ekuiti’ ini mempunyai ciri-ciri yang bertepatan dengan ruh keadilan Islam dan sepatutnya dijadikan sebagai kerangka pelaksanaan kewangan Islam. Namun demikian, amalan kewangan Islam yang terdapat pada hari ini adalah sebaliknya. Apa yang berlaku ialah amalan kewangan Islam dikatakan telah jauh meninggalkan aspirasi ini di mana kerangka ’debt-based’ atau sistem berasaskan hutang menjadi dominan di pasaran dan didapati hingga kini aspek ’ekuiti’ yang diaspirasikan oleh pencetus idea ekonomi Islam dalam konteks dunia moden masakini telah diabaikan. Menyentuh soal ini, Profesor Timur Kuran dan Profesor Mahmud El Gamal telah mengkritik keras pelaksanaan kewangan Islam dengan mengatakan ianya bersifat manipulatif.
Perkembangan kewangan Islam yang pesat sekitar 15-20 peratus setahun menyaksikan pelbagai inovasi produk perbankan yang kini terdapat di pasaran. Dalam masa yang sama, kritikan terhadap produk dan perkhidmatan kewangan Islam jugalah yang paling banyak menerima kritikan daripada pelbagai pihak dari segenap sudut. Di antara kritikan yang popular dan semakin menampakkan kebenarannya ialah produk dan perkhidmatan kewangan Islam ini semakin hari semakin menyamai ciri-ciri dan aplikasi apa yang ditawarkan oleh perbankan konvensional. Produk yang paling mudah untuk dijadikan dijadikan contoh ialah produk pembiayaan perumahan. Sejak pengenalan kewangan Islam hingga sekarang, pembiayaan perumahan yang berprinsipkan ’Bay al Inah’ yang dianggap kontroversi dan tidak diterima oleh ramai fuqaha tradisional dan kontemporari masih lagi menjadi ditawarkan di pasaran. Bahkan jika sebelum ini, kadar keuntungannya adalah tetap dan terdapat sedikit perbezaan dengan pinjaman konvensional, tetapi kini terdapat kadar apungan atau ’floating rate’ yang sememangnya hampir menyamai pinjaman yang ditawarkan oleh perbankan konvensional.
Situasi yang sama berlaku pada produk berasaskan ’Tawarruq’. Pada asasnya ’Tawarruq’ merupakan alternatif kepada produk berasaskan ’Bay al Inah’ terutamanya bagi tujuan kecairan atau ’liquidity’. Walaubagaimanapun, apa yang berlaku ialah ’Tawarruq’ kini digunakan untuk tujuan lain dan bukan sahaja untuk tujuan kecairan. ’Tawarruq’ kini digunakan untuk penjanaan keuntungan melalui pembiayaan termasuk juga bagi produk deposit berstruktur. Produk deposit berasaskan ’Tawarruq’ ini bukan sahaja boleh dianggap sebagai ’hiyal’ atau helah untuk menghalalkan sesuatu tetapi ianya juga menjadi titik tolak ’convergence’ atau penyatuan dengan ciri-ciri produk konvensional. Begitu juga dengan produk pasaran modal Islam seperti ’sukuk’. Sukuk yang berasaskan prinsip ’Musyarakah’ iaitu berdasarkan risiko perkongsian untung rugi pada umumnya bertepatan dengan konsep muamalat Islam. Bagi tujuan ’credit rating’ dan menjamin kebolehpasaran, sukuk Musyarakah akhirnya distrukturkan dengan ’wa’d mulzim’ atau ’purchase undertaking’ yang akhirnya menjadikan produk ini mempunyai ciri yang hampir sama dengan bon konvensional malahan amat sukar untuk dibezakan. Situasi yang sama akan berlaku sekiranya produk Derivatif Islam juga dibenarkan secara berleluasa tanpa ada garis panduan yang sewajarnya. Jika produk sebegini menjadi dominan di pasaran tanpa ada kawalan, pasti ianya akan memadam dan menghilangkan perbezaan di antara sistem kewangan Islam dan konvensional malahan mendedahkan industri kewangan Islam dengan pelbagai risiko yang boleh mengganggu kestabilan industri ini.
Pelaksanaan kewangan Islam juga mengalami permasalahan dari aspek metodologi. Metodologi yang digunakan untuk menyelesaikan isu kewangan Islam termasuk meluluskan produk dan perkhidmatan adalah bersifat tidak menyeluruh dan ada yang mengatakan ianya tidak sesuai. Profesor Al Attas umpamanya mengatakan bahawa kewangan Islam menggunakan metodologi yang tidak autentik iaitu pendekatan dalam kerangka ’keynesian economic dan classical economic’. Dalam hal yang sama, Professor Abdul Hamid Abu Sulayman termasuk Profesor Aslam Haneef telah mengkritik metodologi yang digunakan dalam kewangan Islam iaitu menggunakan pendekatan sains ’fiqh’ atau ’usul fiqh’ menerusi resolusi penasihat syariah untuk menyelesaikan permasalahan syariah dan isu lain seperti implikasi ekonomi dan kewangan. Sepatutnya metodologi ini dinilai semula dengan mengambil kira metodologi atau kaedah yang lain secara intensif yang boleh digunakan dalam kewangan Islam. Oleh kerana keputusan yang dibuat oleh pengamal kewangan Islam bukan sahaja melibatkan hukum bahkan implikasi ekonomi, sosial dan lain-lain, sepatutnya metodologi yang digunakan juga adalah bersifat menyeluruh. Di antara kesan metodologi yang bersifat eksklusif digunakan oleh kewangan Islam pada hari ini ialah kebanyakan produk dan perkhidmatan kewangan Islam yang ditawarkan adalah hanya bersifat halal dan patuh syariah tetapi tidak memberikan kesan yang signifikan kepada sosio-ekonomi masyarakat.
Kritikan terhadap aspek ’governan’ atau tadbirurus juga perlu diberikan perhatian. Tadbirurus institusi kewangan Islam didapati mengutamakan ’shareholder’s value’ atau nilai pemegang saham. Orientasi ’Shareholder’s value’ ini menjadikan institusi kewangan Islam ini cenderung kepada misi dan visi untuk memaksimakan keuntungan pemegang saham. Menyentuh aspek ini, Profesor Abas Mirakhor mengesyorkan institusi kewangan Islam untuk menjadikan pendekatan ’stakeholder’s value’ sebagai model tadbir urus. Model ’stakeholder’s value’ ini mengambil kira kepentingan dan kebajikan semua pihak yang terlibat dalam sesebuah institusi sama ada secara langsung atau tidak langsung termasuk pemegang saham, lembaga pengarah, pengurusan, pekerja, pelanggan, pihak berautoriti, masyarakat umum dan alam persekitaran. Walaupun, asas tadbirurus bermodelkan ’stakeholder’s value’ ini dilihat amat bersesuaian dengan aspirasi kewangan Islam, masih terdapat banyak institusi kewangan Islam yang berpegang kepada pendekatan ’shareholder’s value’.
Dengan pelbagai krisis ekonomi dan kewangan yang melanda dunia, kewangan Islam dilihat mampu untuk menawarkan sistem alternatif yang adil kepada semua. Dalam aspek ini, kewangan Islam diharapkan akan dapat membantu meningkatkan taraf sosio-ekonomi masyarakat terutama kepada golongan yang sangat memerlukan. Namun demikian, sekiranya ditinjau kepada amalan kewangan Islam ada pada hari ini, pelaksanaannya tidak memberikan kesan yang signifikan kepada pembangunan sosio-ekonomi masyarakat. Profesor Mehmet Asutay misalnya telah mengkritik kewangan Islam yang dilihat gagal untuk memberikan sumbangan dan impak yang positif kepada keadaan sosio-ekonomi masyarakat dan pembangunan. Beliau mengatakan bahawa industri kewangan Islam hanya berperanan sebagai aktor dan berkhidmat secara berlebihan untuk pasaran dan tidak memberikan sumbangan sewajarnya untuk pembangunan sosio-ekonomi masyarakat. Bahkan ada juga menyuarakan pandangan bahawa sehingga kini, kewangan Islam dilihat lebih bersifat ’elitis’ dengan memberikan keutamaan kepada projek-projek komersil berbanding pembiayaan dalam sektor kecil dan sederhana dan ’micro finance atau kewangan mikro. Berdasarkan fakta dan informasi yang dikumpulkan, beliau mendapati kewangan Islam tidak sensitif dan sangat kurang memberikan penekanan kepada pembangunan sosio-ekonomi masyarakat bahkan kadang kala terlalu memfokuskan kepada projek komersil yang menguntungkan segelintir individu.
Kesimpulan
Berdasarkan analisis ringkas di atas, dapatlah disimpulkan bahawa pelaksanaan kewangan Islam telah mendapat pelbagai kritikan daripada pelbagai pihak. Kritikan ini adalah bersifat menyeluruh dan ini termasuk aspek espitemologi, pendekatan, produk, metodologi, tadbir urus dan pembangunan sosio-ekonomi. Kritikan ini ada yang bersifat andaian, persepsi dan ada juga yang disokong dengan fakta yang sahih. Walau apapun, kritikan ini harus dilihat sebagai sesuatu yang boleh dijadikan asas untuk menentukan arah tuju industri kewangan Islam. Pengamal kewangan Islam sepatutnya menerima dengan hati terbuka kritikan ini dan semestinya perlu menilai semula strategi, perancangan dan amalan sedia ada. Kritikan-kritikan ini juga membuktikan bahawa trend industri kewangan Islam ini boleh dikatakan secara umumnya semakin hari semakin menuju ke arah ’convergence’ atau penyatuan dengan sistem konvensional dari pelbagai aspek. Hingga satu hari nanti kemungkinan akan berlaku tiada lagi perbezaan yang nyata di antara sistem ekonomi Islam dan sistem berasaskan riba yang menjadi teras perbankan konvensional selama ini. Penulis merasakan, sudah sampai masanya semua pihak yang terlibat dalam kewangan Islam sama ada secara langsung atau tidak langsung untuk secara serius mengkaji, menilai, bermuhasabah, menganalisa dan mentransformasi amalan dan pelaksanaan kewangan Islam sedia ada agar ianya terus subur dan segar demi kemaslahatan umat Islam khususnya dan masyarakat dunia umumnya. Usaha-usaha ke arah memurnikan hala tuju kewangan Islam bukan sahaja perlu datang dari pengamal kewangan Islam dan pihak berautoriti tetapi sokongan penuh oleh masyarakat juga adalah sangat diperlukan.
Best Regards

ZULKIFLI HASAN
Great Mosque of Cordoba, Andalusia, Spain
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