Whitechapel hosts Seminar and Networking Event for Muslim Business

THE MUSLIM WEEKLY 2004
Black Lion House in Whitechapel saw Global Vision 2000 bring together over 50 UK Muslim businesses on Sunday with the help of WSI (Internet Consultants) and Bartercard (Global Trade Exchange). Their aim is to play a catalytic role in assisting Muslim businesses re-assert their status in the trading world.

The day comprised of a series of talks beginning with Global Vision's Moeen Yaseen who, with his added capacity as chair for the day outlined how his organisation intended to pursue strategic business partnerships to aid the Muslim business community. This conference being one example of many initiatives that they have envisaged as they aim towards a usury free global trading platform.

An insightful global perpective followed, where Jamal Harwood (an Islamic Economist) explained how global financial markets negatively impacted on Muslims using speculative currency trading and stock-markets as a reference. Key points included how the abandoning of the Gold Standard ultimately put the developing world at the mercy of Western bankers, while foreign currency speculative trade eclipsing real trade by 96% encouraged instability as well as creating short-term gains for speculators at the expense of domestic traders. The limited liability/responsibility structure of the stock-market was in direct contrast to how Islam emphasises responsibility of transactions as well as an upfront, transparent ownership structure.

Describing the present world order as neo-colonialist whereby Muslims hadn't acheived genuine independence, Jamal explained how institutions such as the IMF (which was initially formed to provide short-term loans) go into countries and preach privatisation. Subsequently, large multinationals enter and extract profit from productive industries under the guise of market liberalisation. "As Muslims how do we confront these issues?" he quipped. As Islam presented a remedy to every aspect of life, our obligation was to seek Islamic solutions for International trade.

His talk was followed by John Attridge (Bartercard National UK Sales Manager) who described how an unwittingly Islam-friendly exchange was established in 1991 in Australia. Overcoming traditional barriers to barter (i.e requirement for mutual need, time and undivisable values) Bartercard's massive Global network comprising 85000 members including 4500 in the UK provided a tailor-made resource for Muslims to take advantage of. Noting their usefulness in operating as an intermediary to interest-free transactions without affecting the cashflow of a business.

The seminar would not have been complete without Waheed Qaiser who represented the Islamic Bank of Britain which aims to pioneer a range of holistic, shariah-based retail banking products on the High St. Indeed, many of the questions that ensued in the question and answer session that followed were directed at him, reflecting perhaps the 'interest' that the Muslim business community has generated.

The post-lunch individual networking session gave an opportunity for everybody to mingle and devise ways in which we could all enable circulation of money rather than accumulation.
Photo Caption: courtesy of WSI who offer world-class consulting and web-development services that help clients succeed on the internet.