Declaring ＂the objective of creating a distinct discipline of Islamic economics＂ to be ＂still a dream＂ and the recent development of Islamic finance to be either camouflaged conventional
finance or a more inefficient and uneconomical alternative to it, Khan (former Deputy Auditor General of Pakistan and former Chief Resident Auditor of UN Peacekeeping Missions) calls for
rethinking the basic principles of ongoing efforts to harmonize economics with Islamic social principles. His argument is particularly focused on rethinking the idea of riba (or interest) and
its prohibition. He contends that the meaning of riba has been improperly expanded to include the commercial interest of conventional financial institutions and that the Islamic financial
institutions that claim to be in harmony with the prohibition have in fact merely ＂devised a whole host of ruses and subterfuges to conceal interest＂ that merely introduce greater risk and
inefficiency. He also calls for a rethinking of the system of zakah (a system of wealth transfer from the rich to the needy and one of the five pillars of Islam). Annotation ©2013 Book News,
Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
