IslamicFinance.de

The most anticipated launch for some time is the slated $2bn Goldman Sachs (GS) Sukuk that will close at the end of this month.
Mohammed Khnifer, external Islamic finance specialist for Edcomm Group Banker’s Academy in New York, stated that although the path GS is taking is full of controversy, it could open the door for the western conventional finance industry to enter the Islamic finance in a big way.
Khnifer argues in the first place the tradability mechanism of the Sukuk threatenes its Shari’ah compliance. Second, he debates that with GS being the beating heart of Wall Street and standard-bearer of free-wheeling casino capitalism it cannot guarantee to Islamic investors that it will ring-fence the proceeds of its Sukuk to support just Shari’ah compliant, Riba-free activities; especially as it has no Islamic window.