The only strategic comms we need

ARTICLE: "When Hedge Funds Meet Islamic Finance: U.S. Firms Hire Scholars To Help Design Products," by Joanna Slater, Wall Street Journal, 9 August 2007, p. A1.

All of this dialogue is based on the Koran disallowing interest, reflecting the pre-economic logic of the source (and by that, I mean, disallowing credit back then wasn't the great limit on economic development that it is now).

Now, it's all back and forth with Islamic scholars to see how far you can bend that rule while still meeting it in spirit, which gets the process at least into the last century and starts accelerating it toward this one.

Yes, it is a contentious dialogue, with risks on both sides, but it's the best type of dialogue, beating any strategic comms or public diplomacy by a ways.

Comments

[Vinay Gupta]

I think that some of the most interesting work to be done in terms of intercultural understanding between Islam and the West involves understanding what the political status of a citizen living under Sharia *is*.

For example, if somebody was to go through the texts, and pull out the Rights and the Law, translated the list into English, and into a format something like the Bill of Rights and the Common Law, I think it would make our process of understanding what those who want Sharia law much easier.

New understanding could help open up much-needed new options.