Turkey’s giant projects to fuel Islamic finance boom

Turkey’s large infrastructure investments may boost the country’s Islamic finance sector which has already been witnessing a boom, the country’s top capital markets officials have said.

“Islamic finance tools may be benefited from in [financing of] in Turkey’s mega projects like bridges, airports, and Kanal Istanbul. These projects are compatible with the Islamic financing structure,” İbrahim Turhan, chairman of Turkey’s stock exchange Borsa Istanbul said yesterday, speaking at the Islamic Finance News Roadshow.

Vahdettin Ertaş, Capital Markets Board (SPK) chairman, also said that they “believed” the private sector’s sukuk, an Islamic compliant bond, export needs would increase due to the large infrastructure investments on the agenda.

Currently, the Treasury’s sukuk exports have outpaced $5 billion, while the private sector has exported more than $1.5 billion.

During the ceremony, Bank Asya said it was planning to export at least 125 million Turkish Liras of additional sukuk before the year ended, while Albaraka Türk said it was mulling exporting over $200 million worth of sukuk within the last quarter or at the beginning of next year.

In the past 10 years, the non-interest finance sector grew around 15 percent and the number of countries in which financial bodies operating in compliance with Islamic finance rules could be found has surpassed 70, Ertaş stressed. “It’s expected to exceed $1.9 trillion by the end of this year,” he said.

Islamic finance has been sublimated as a safe haven during the financial crisis that sparked skepticism towards interest-oriented finance.

Alternative financing
According to the chief regulator, these Islamic-compliant tools were “not only valuable because they are religious or virtuous,” but they were also “alternative products leaning on a strong financial basis.”

Non-interest financial tools are accorded a great importance in Turkey’s bid to make Istanbul a global financial center as well. “We see that there is a substantial saving surplus in our neighboring Gulf country friends, and in Asia, and these funds prefer non-interest financial tolls, in which they can invest safely,” Ertaş said.

BIST Chairman Turhan also announced that they are planning to open a research and development center for the Islamic financing studies, with the support of the Treasury and World Bank.

In February the government expanded the utilization of Islamic financial tools. It introduced new regulations opening the way for Islamic banks to found non-interest pension funds and most recently enabling them to invest private pension funds in non-interest financial instruments.

“As of today the investors of these kinds of [non-interest] funds have surpassed 400,000, while the fund amount reached above $175 million,” Ertaş has said during the same event.

Fifth World Islamic Retail Banking Conference to open in November

“An Islamic window is simply a special facility offered by conventional banks to provide services to customers who wish to have an Islamic banking service,” said a press release from the even organisers. “However, learning from competitors who have tried to adopt the Islamic window scope and failed, many banks are using their branch network to open an 'Islamic window', to reach new customers and at the same time testing the potential of the market.

“Fifth World Islamic Retail Banking Conference will feature Wasim Saifi, Chief Executive Officer at Standard Chartered Saadiq and Global Head, Islamic Consumer Banking, Standard Chartered Bank elaborating on the pitfalls and shortcomings of a Window model.

“Taking place on the 26 - 27 November 2013, at the Shangri-La Hotel, Dubai - UAE, this conference will feature the Annual Open Fatwa Session, participated by renowned global Shari’ah scholars and experts such as Sheikh Nizam Yaquby, Shaykh Haytham Tamim, Sirajulhaq Hilal Yasini, Dr. Muhammad Al-Bashir Muhammad Al-Amine and Dr. Aznan Hasan (Shariah Advisor of Bursa Malaysia).

“This dedicated session is one of the key highlights of the conference and will focus on the current challenges and identify opportunities that are explored by Shari’ah scholars such a:
Driving product convergence and reducing Shari’ah gaps in different markets especially within Middle-East & South East Asia;

Standardisation of fatwas across similar geographies;

Development of Shari’ah-based products as opposed to Shari’ah-compliant products;
Retail Banking Financing Products-without Bai al inah, Tawarruq (Commodity Murabaha) & Bai Ad Dayn- What are the options available?’

The importance of Shari’ah scholars having the business acumen, understanding trade terms and commercial practises - pre-requisite for making consistent, well analysed yet fast fatwas/rulings.

Analysis on UK census show decline in Christianity, sharp increase in Islam

 

Islam is certainly the fastest-growing religion in the west as the different studies have proved the fact in different times. Another study has endorsed the fact which is a fresh analysis of the 2011 census conducted in the United Kingdom showing that Christian faith in the country is declining rapidly amongst the British-born population, whilst belief in Islam has dramatically increased.

A report published by the Office for National Statistics revealed that the percentage of people following a Christian faith dropped from 71.7 percent in 2001 to 59.3 percent in 2011. More than one in 10 under 25s in the UK now present themselves as Muslim.

Figures for Christianity were boosted, however, by the 1.2 million foreign-born Christians residing in the UK, such as Polish Catholics and evangelicals from countries such as Nigeria.

Meanwhile, the percentage of the people who have no religion rose from 14.8 percent to a quarter of the population.

This fluctuation is being attributed to both ageing Christians, a quarter of which are aged 65 and above and younger Muslims, half of which are under 25. Rising levels of immigration across England and Wales over the last decade are also believed to have contributed, with the 2011 census showing 600,000 more foreign-born followers of an Islamic faith.

Christianity is still the most prevalent faith in England and Wales and has 33.2 million followers, but such a rapid decline could suggest that it may lose its place as the most popular religion amongst Britons within the decade.

A spokesperson for the Church of England said that despite the analysis, the UK is still a “faithful nation.”

“Christianity was the largest religious group in England and Wales with 33.2 million people – 59 percent of the population. The second largest group was Islam with 2.7 million people – 5 percent of the population. Combined with other religions, these figures show that as a nation we are overwhelming a faithful nation,” he added.

Keith Porteous Wood, Executive Director of the National Secular Society said that young people may perceive Christianity as unattractive because it “lacks relevance to their lives.”

Keith added, “They particularly dislike the church’s failure to treat women equally and its obsessional war against homosexuality. Most young Catholics despair at their church’s attitude to contraception and abortion.”

“Because the young are abandoning the churches, congregations will continue to dwindle and age. Christian Research projects Anglican and Catholic church attendance in Britain will drop below 200,000 jointly by 2050,” he concluded.

source : http://www.islamonline.com

World Assembly of Islamic Cities focuses on Islamic identity, culture

 

The northwestern Iranian city of Qazvin is hosting the first assembly of Islamic cities, with representatives of over 40 countries attending the two-day event. The conference is aimed at focusing attention on preserving the identity of Islamic cities while using modern urban development techniques. 

Addressing the conference, secretary of Iran’s Expediency council Mohsen Rezaee said that Islamic cities have come under western influence in terms of architecture and living environment which are destructive to Islamic identity.

The city of Qazvin was chosen as the host of the conference because it was the former capital of the Persian Empire under Safavids. It is a provincial capital today that has been an important cultural center throughout history. Archeological findings in the Qazvin plain reveal urban agricultural settlements for at least nine millennia.

Islam, as the last monotheistic religion, has widely influenced various areas and aspects of human life. Important issues in the lives of human beings have been taken into consideration through various spiritual instructions. These instructions have been organized in a proper and meritorious structure. Settlement is no exception in this regard. This important subject has been tackled in its various aspects and across different levels. The quality of life and settlement and relative aspects of its sustainability have been taken into consideration and been thoroughly studied in Islam. Although the Islamic criteria and rights of settlement are very precise, fine and profound, a very small percentage of those have been considered and applied. Contemporary cities in the Muslim countries have not been formed and developed according to the fundamental principles of Islam. Perhaps it was more considered in the past. It is worthy that urban manager and mayors notice and apply the details and generalities of these instructions.

ISLAMIC HOTELS or HALAL HOTELS getting popular in Turkey, especially from the Turkish.

‘Halal Hotels’ lure Turks.

Hurriyet English Daily News [August 28,  2013], reported that, Istanbul – Alternative holidays in halal hotels in Turkey have been drawing the attention of Turkish people, rather than Arab tourists, according to sector professionals.

Local tourists make up a major proportion of visitors who prefer alternative holidays, Seval Tur General Manager Omer Solmaz said in a telephone interview with the Hurriyet Daily News yesterday. Solmaz said Turks living abroad were the second largest group choosing these hotels, while other Muslims in European countries and Russia were interested in alternative holidays despite their share in total visitor numbers in Turkey being relatively low.

The hotels offer their visitors separate swimming pools and beaches for women and men, along with halal food and non-alcoholic drinks. 

Solmaz said people who generally want to have a holiday with their family in an alcohol-free environment prefer such- Muslim-friendly hotels, particularly adding that women tend to feel ‘more comfortable’ there. “Veiled women are able to wear swimsuits or bikinis while they swim in separate pools, or in the sea off separate beaches. In addition, some unveiled women prefer these hotels, in order to avoid being disturbed by the attitude of some men” he said.

A representative from Yorunge Turizm told the daily News that Arab tourists generally preferred normal hotels in the southern provinces in summer. “This is because they are already living in conservative countries. When they come to Turkey, they are looking for something different,’’ he said.

The hotels serve at almost full capacity in the summer sea-son, expect during the month of Ramadhan, when the capacity falls to around 50%. “The people who prefer alternative holidays are usually prayerful. They can’t swim while they are fasting. That’s why the occupancy rates fall during Ramadan.” Solmaz said, adding that some hotels were lighting the beaches at nights for their Ramadhan visitors, who sometimes wanted to swim after the fasting breaking iftar meal. 

The alternative holiday has been a rising trend over the last decade of Justice and Development Party (AKP) rule, according to sector players, while there are currently only around 50 hotels for alternative holidays in Turkey (approximately 30 halal hotels and 20 thermal hotels) it seems like their number will increase.

Muslim-friendly hotels are particularly located in the southern, Aegean, north western and Black Sea regions, while thermal hotels are generally in interior provinces.

“Thermal hotels are for health tourism. They don’t have alcohol drinks for health reasons, but they have become a part of alternative holidays over time,” Secim Aydin, the president of Anatolia Tourism Enterprises Association, told the Daily News.

He also added that some places in plateaus in the Black Sea region had started to offer alternative holidays. 

“Alternative holidays are appropriate for Islamic tendencies.” Aydin said. “These hotels’ profit margins and occupancy rates are higher than the others. As long as this profitability continues, investments in this sector will continue under this government’s rule.”

The prices per person, per night range between 25 euros and 220 euros in alternative holiday hotels.

Caprice Gold Group leads the way in Halal Hotel Industry

Further as reported by our special correspond from Istanbul, a good example of ‘muslim-friendly’ hotel is, Caprice Thermal Palace which is the first worldwide five-star hotel, based on Islamic compliance, serves by 728 rooms and 2548 beds since 1995 and it is located in Didim, Turkey.

 

 Caprice Thermal Palace goes down in history as the first five-star hotel of the world with no alcohol service and private swimming facilities allocated individually for men and women. The hotel also provides excellent spa facilities with Hamam, Sauna, Massage and Thermal pool for men and women.The average occupancy rate for the last 10 years is 85% annually. Today the hotel is experiencing advanced booking of more than 10 years ahead.

According to Prof. Shaya’a OTHMAN, the Group CEO, Caprice Thermal Palace is the 1^st in the world to receive Islamic Quality Standard award of IQS-5 Crescents Standard from Universal Crescent Standard Centre, during the International Islamic Tourism Conference which was held in World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur Malaysia on 6 December 2012.

In Malaysia, Blue Wave Grand Hotel Shah Alam received IQS – 3 Crescents Standard Award.

 

Falls under the same organization, The Caprice Gold Istanbul, which will be in operation in late 2014, will provide state-of-art facilities and services of higher standards as well as “Muslim friendly”, which is strictly based on Islamic principles. 

This hotel is built at the cost of Euro 300 million [excluding the cost of land], will provide 1300 luxury rooms with 3000 bed capacity. The services and facilities are meant for business and leisure. Caprice Gold, Istanbul is the first hotel in the world to receive IQS 7-Standard award of Islamic Quality Standard (IQS).

 

 

  

The Founder of the Caprice Gold Group is a brilliant visionary businessman from Siirt, Turkey, Mr. Fadil AKGUNDUZ. 

He received both of these prestigious awards of IQS – Islamic Quality Standard [ IQS- 5 Crescents Standard and IQS-7 Crescents Standard] from the International well known Muslim Statement, Right Hon Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamed [ Ex-Prime Minister of Malaysia] during the International Islamic Tourism Standard Conference.