Media and public relations — the missing link in Islamic finance

When it comes to public relations and marketing, the industry has a very big hole that is expanding day by day.
Although expanding their mandate to include marketing and public relations for a geographically- dispersed and fragmented industry at various stages of development would be unreasonable, the continued negative headlines will not go away even if they are ignored.
After determining a need for an industry body to promote and educate Islamic finance, the funding question should be asked. Fortunately, the experience of AAOFI, IFSB, IIFM, etc, suggests the stakeholders could include the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), Islamic financial institutions, forward-looking governments like Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, and possibly the existing industry bodies (to include their technical message).