Challenges faced (Cultural, perceptional and religious perspective ) Research Paper

Challenges faced (Cultural, perceptional and religious perspective ) and acceptance of Islamic Finance in western (Non Islamic C - Research Paper Example Also discussed is the concern over Islamic finance allegedly supporting terrorism, and why some western countries equate Islamic finance with supporting terrorism. Some implications are highlighted and recommendations are then made based on the research as to how to deal with such issues and overcome the barriers to making Islamic finance more acceptable in Western countries. Although most Islamic banks are concentrated in Muslim countries, they are also to be found in many non-Muslim countries, especially in Europe and the U.S.). In addition, some conventional banks have also begun to offer Islamic financing schemes such as the HSBC Amanah division of HSBC Group established in 1998. Also, although several studies have been conducted on attitudes towards Islamic banking and the patronization of Islamic banks with reference to IFIs located in Muslim countries, some studies, albeit very few have also been conducted to gather the views and preferences of Western customers. A selection o f these IFIs located in Western countries is also the focus of attention and the few studies referred to above are mentioned. General perceptions of Islamic finance It proved to be difficult to ascertain the perceptions of Westerners towards Islamic finance due to a lack of studies in this area. Most studies have examined customers from Muslim and other developing countries. To give an example of one significant study, Erol & El-Bdour (1989) studied attitudes towards Islamic banking in Jordan. They used a nine-part question/statement instrument and showed that religious motivation was not such an important factor as a fast and efficient service, reputation and image, and confidentiality. Nonetheless, a general awareness of Islamic banks and their methods was evident. Sudin et al. (1994) conducted a more extensive study among both Muslims and non-Muslims in Malaysia. The three most important criteria for non-Muslims were firstly, friendliness of staff, secondly a fast and efficient s ervice, and thirdly the bank’s image and reputation. Another study on Malaysian customers showed that although most of them did not have a complete understanding of Islamic financial products, they did not differentiate between products from Islamic and conventional banks (Hamid & Nordin, 2001). In another study, Gerrard & Cunningham (1997) surveyed the attitude towards Islamic banking among Singaporeans where Muslims are in a minority. It was found that non-Muslims were generally lacking in awareness of Islamic banking. Furthermore, whereas Muslims were mainly motivated by religious reasons besides profitability, and had little interest in getting a high interest rate on savings, it was the opposite situation for non-Muslims. It is a similar situation in Turkey (Okumus, 2005). Even in non-Muslim countries like India where Muslims form a significant proportion of the country’s population, awareness of IFIs was low at the turn of the present century (Munawar & Llewellyn , 2002: 188). Less than half of the 720 persons interviewed knew that they even existed. This general finding of non-Muslims being more motivated by reasons other than religious ones could be the case in Western countries as well among non-Muslims that do use Islamic finance. However, during the past decade there has probably been an increasing awareness

Does the internet make you smarter or dumber Essay

Does the internet make you smarter or dumber - Essay Example Shirky states that those who are opposed to the development of the influence of the internet on a global scale are backward individuals who are against advancement; that they are the enemies of progress. The statements made by Shirky can be said not to show the true picture concerning the internet; that while it has some uses, it is also working towards making individuals dumber than in previous generations. This is because of the fact that while plenty of information can be found within it, this information tends to be extremely shallow and does not encourage reflection by those who have access to it. The internet is slowly but surely leading to less reliance on books and more on unsatisfactory online sources which barely have enough information which can be used to come up with proper conclusions. It can be said that a world without books would be a dreary place within which to live because books have traditionally been the means of transmitting knowledge from one generation to another. Through books, issues are discussed more deeply and in the process, the reader gets to have a better understanding of the subjects being discussed. This is not true of the internet, because it is o ften scarce in content and this creates a situation where individuals get only a shallow understanding of the subject matter. This makes it extremely difficult for knowledge to be transmitted and the lack of this knowledge, it is possible, might end up making people dumber. The use of the internet for the purpose of getting information might end up creating a society which is not equipped to deal with the issues of day to day life and it may instead become artificial. While one would agree with Shirky that the internet has become of immense use for the purpose of gaining instant information, it can be said that it should not be the only source of information. Instead, it should be

Management Accounting (I WILL UPLOAD THE SUBJECT) Assignment

Management Accounting (I WILL UPLOAD THE SUBJECT) - Assignment Example Under the following sections, each of the budget and projected financial statements are briefly discussed along with the assumptions taken to complete these projections. Assumptions 1. There are two types of raw materials to produce the final product named as Kungfu and Jodu respectively. 2. As far as the labour is concerned, two types of labour, is used according to their level of skills namely as skilled and non-skilled labour. 3. The company has invested in two types of capital expenditures such as furniture and equipment. Other non-current assets are acquired on rentals by the company. 4. Two selling prices are set by the company for first and last six months of the year such that the selling price for first six months is set to be ?300 and for the last six months, it is set as ?320 per unit. 5. For material and labour prices, it is assumed that these prices will remain same in the whole year. 6. For overheads, it is assumed that they are going to be 60% of the labour cost. 7. Cl osing stock is estimated to be 15% of the sales volume of the upcoming month. 8. Collection for sales is to be completed in such a manner that around 70% of the sales are to be obtained in the month of sales whereas the remainder of the collection is going to be completed in the next month. 9. For purchases, the company has estimated that around 80% of the purchases are going to be made in their corresponding months whereas the remaining amount will be paid in the next month. 10. For other expenses like labour and overheads, the payments are to be made the moment they arise. 11. Around ?2,500 is going to be taken out in the form of drawings every month by the owners. 12. Income tax rate is going to be applied at 30% of the income before tax. 13. The rate of depreciation is set to be 30% with the straight-line method Discussion Unit Cost The unit cost of the product â€Å"Karate† consists of three basic ingredients such as direct material cost, direct labour cost and overheads (Kinney and Raiborn, 2009). The total unit cost of Karate is expected to be ?221. If this per unit cost is split in all three components, direct material consumes around ?165, direct labour consumes around ?35 and overheads constitutes around ?21. Budgets The product budgeting purpose is served with the preparation of six kinds of budgets namely as Fixed Expenditure, Sales, Purchases, Production, Direct Labour, and Cash Budget. Comprehensive figures are accounted for the preparation of these budgets such that each budget consists of, not only having the annual figures but also monthly figures. Since this is the first year of the operations of the business, therefore, it is assumed that the start-up capital of the business is ?50,000. The following discussion takes into account each budget briefly: The fixed expenditure budget consists of ?50,000 cumulatively such that the business has planned to spend ?45,000 at the start and ?5,000 after six months of the start of the business. Fo r furniture, ?10,000 amount is reserved and for equipment, ?40,000 will be used. As far as the sales budget is concerned, 300 units are anticipated for the sale purpose in the 1st three months, followed by 365 units in the next six months and in the last quarter, the sales unit are expected to be 400 units. The

Mother Teresa Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Mother Teresa - Essay Example This paper stresses that Mother Teresa was always passionate about missionary life and was able to locate any missionary on the map and tell their service given at each place. This probably led later to becoming a missionary herself. Let us take two different theories of Personality – Entity theory and Incremental theory and try to apply it to Mother Teresa’s life. Entity theory states that personal qualities, which are inherited or learnt from the parents or at home, are stable over the time. Incremental theory stresses that personal traits are changeable and can be developed over the time. This report makes a conclusion that she was much influenced by her mother for caring, loving and helping young and old, rich and poor all alike and to believe in God and to pray. Her mother Drana made sure that her children never wasted their time and had a helping mentality towards the poor and needy. This was deep rooted in Mother Teresa’s mind from her childhood and stayed till her death. This supports the entity theory. It just kept improving and she made her area of service broader by treating the sick and the dying. Loving and caring for children and poor was innate in her. Treating the sick was an acquired skill though the urge to do so came from within. Mother Teresa believed that God asked her to take care of the less privileged and thereafter she put her entire life into fulfilling God’s demand. So the aspect of treating the sick and dying can be attributed to the incremental theory.