Could Islamic Finance rescue the global economy?

Source: alternet.org

By: Harris Irfan

Is there a place for ethics and morality in the global economy? Should we continue to rely on governments to tweak at the margins of financial regulation, or is there a credible argument that a root and branch reformation is required – a revolution in capitalism?

Anthropologist and co-founder of the Occupy Wall Street movement David Graeber believes – along with an increasing number of leading intellectuals – that the world’s reliance on our current banking system has had a catastrophic impact on society, leading to an increasing divide between rich and poor, an increase in contemporary versions of debt bondage, and perpetuating the idea that credit creation is a mark of human progress.

The Significance of Emotions in Islam

By: Tarek Younis

Source: http://www.suhaibwebb.com/

Emotion: an often-neglected, yet significant component of our psychological configuration

Our psychological configuration consists of several components, all of which are interrelated:

1. The spiritual component, as we say the fitrah, which naturally predisposes us with an inclination towards God and good.
2. The cognitive component, which assumes all types of mental processes we can have.
3. The emotional component, which covers the range of emotions we experience, such as anger, sadness, fear, shame, and guilt.

The purpose of this article is to focus exclusively on the emotional component, as it is oft-neglected amongst Muslims; indeed our community habitually focuses on our spiritual and cognitive components instead. This imbalance is significant for two reasons:

Lebanon sceptical of ‘save water’ effort

Lebanese campaign to save water amid a shortage is unlikely to work without government regulation, experts say.

More than 80 percent of farmers in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley said they face water shortages this year

By: Sophie Cousins

Source: http://www.aljazeera.com

Beirut, Lebanon – Plastered across billboards, flashing across television screens, and splashed on pamphlets and stickers, a new message is suddenly everywhere you look in Lebanon: “If you love me, save me some water.”