A slump in global markets around the world has led political leaders everywhere to tap creative and innovative ideas. In the past few months, the word “bailout”, adopted as a financial policy in both developed and developing countries, has appeared repeatedly in newspaper headlines.

Muslim leaders, who attended the fifth World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) in Jakarta recently, have sought to unearth wisdom from Islamic traditions, that is, the Islamic financial system of Sharia banking, which is gaining increasing popularity in Indonesia.

President Susilo Bambang Yu-dhoyono stated, “Islamic banking should take a front seat because it has not been affected by the crisis.” Likewise, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, pinpointed the “unbridled greed” in the current conventional financial system which has caused this global economic crisis, saying the “Islamic financial system” could be a solution.

In view of the heterogeneous modern world, such an effort is not entirely new. The current modern world constitutes various elements of Chinese, Indian, Roman, Greece, Arabic, Malay and many more traditions. No one can claim theirs a dominant tradition; nor can one ignore certain elements of another’s.

Thus, the Islamic-Arabic tradition has made its own contribution to modern culture and science. The origin of many vital scientific terms can be traced to Arabic roots, such as algebra (al-jabar), alchemy (al-kimya), baccalaureate (bi haqq al-riwayah), and many others. People prefer to use Arabic to Roman numerals.

In addition, the words orangutan, amok, and mango derive from Malay’s lexicon. Paper was first made in China. Famous cheeses are products of Italy and French. The forefathers of modern philosophy were Greek. Japanese and European cars are competitive in the global market. My laptop was made in Malaysia, whereas my blue jeans are an original product from Tanah Abang, a traditional market in Jakarta.

As long as the intention of the enterprise is not merely apologetic, i.e., to merely justify one’s own faith and belief, it should be interpreted as a positive contribution. The Islamic financial system, Sharia banking, should be open to all users regardless of their faith, gender, ethnicity and nationality. In the future, if the Sharia banking system survives, it should not become the property of Muslim communities exclusively. Other communities should be welcome to open such a bank, which may benefit them, and they should not be prevented modifying it, if necessary.

However, this is still wishful thinking, for there is no guarantee yet of the durability of this “unripe” system. The Sharia system is still in the making. Given the many schools of Islamic law (note that most Indonesian Sunnis acknowledge four main schools, Malikite, Hanbalite, Shafi’ite, and Hanafite), the system has to decide which opinions are to be used.

Looking at history, religions and religious sentiment have played a critical role in advancing human innovation, from education, to medicine, to music. Take the YMCA (The Young Men’s Christian Association) founded in London in 1844, as an example. The original purpose of this evangelical organization was to promote the Christian faith and practices.

But now, the worldwide services of this organization are open to all members, regardless of their faith and ethnicity. Here in Montreal, my daughter attended the YMCA’s swimming class and many other activities.

In Indonesia, the openness of religious organizations and charity foundations is nothing new. The Muhammadiyah, Catholic and Protestant communities have founded a number of universities and hospitals, whose services have broadened from religious purposes to public interest.

The Indonesian Muslim community has a longstanding tradition of charity, such as almsgiving (zakat), endowment (wakqf), and voluntary alms (sadaqah), whose cultivation still requires better management. As the country with the largest Muslim population in world, we have only two reputable organizations, Bazis the Institution for Zakat Management, since 1989, and Ru mah Zakat, the House of Zakat, since 1998, which have received alms from donators and distributed them to the needy. Their activities, however, remain limited in scope to religious activities.  The House of Zakat has granted a number of scholarships to students from elementary to senior high schools.

However, compared to the YMCA, which has evolved and matured, these two zakat organizations still have a long way to go.

In this country anything labelled “Islamic”, from novels, movies, clothes, lifestyles, politics, to banking systems can gain popularity effortlessly. Indonesia is a big market. On the other hand, leaders of the country should not merely sell ideas with “Islamic” accessories; they should also show the true substance of ideas to the public.

With regard to the Muslim leaders’ good intentions of offering a solution to the world recession, it is indeed a good signal. At least it turns the Muslim world’s attention from politics, which merely sharply contrasts their world view with that of the West, to the economy.

The writer is a lecturer at Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University.

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