A Fresh Take on Islamic Finance

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Other B-schools have also been paying attention to Islamic finance. In 2004, Rice University in Houston announced that economics and statistics professor Mahmoud El-Gamal had been chosen to serve as the first Islamic finance scholar-in-residence at the U.S. Treasury Dept. (see BusinessWeek.com, 10/27/03, "The Race to Rule Islamic Finance"). Considered among the world's leading experts on the subject, El-Gamal already was the chair of Islamic Economics, Finance, & Management at the university.

Rising Interest

Harvard has also been researching Islamic finance for some time. In 1995, the university launched the Harvard Islamic Finance Project (IFP), a group that studies and analyzes the growth of Islamic finance. The project brings together faculty and students from the law, divinity, and business schools, among others. Interested students at Harvard Business School can take advantage of relevant seminars, conferences, and networking opportunities planned by the project group. They also participate in the selection of papers that are published after being introduced at a conference regularly organized by the IFP.

S. Nazim Ali, director of the Islamic Finance Project, says he has noticed an increased demand for information on the topic among both faculty and students. At Harvard, there are 19 examples of relevant theses, dissertations, and research projects on Islamic finance. And six case studies on the growing sector are available through the B-school. Ali also confirms that he's getting more inquiries from other schools about how to approach research and teach this subject to students of various disciplines.

Still, even Harvard is without an actual Islamic finance course. But some HBS and John F. Kennedy School of Government students head to Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy. There, Warde, also a Fletcher adjunct professor, teaches "Islamic Banking & Finance," which provides an overview of the industry's history, the range of financial products available today, and matters of politics and the possibility of terrorist financing. Warde also teaches a course that exposes students to the Arabic language, with a particular emphasis on Islamic finance vocabulary and oral and written communication.

Student interest in the "Islamic Banking & Finance" course has skyrocketed since Warde first started teaching it. When the course kicked off three years ago, 10 students signed up. Now, almost 40 students are enrolled. Business opportunities are going to keep coming in the world of Islamic finance for at least a few more years, says Warde. For the moment, though, MBAs will have to educate themselves about the field by traveling outside their comfort zone—and maybe even beyond the walls of their B-school.

Di Meglio is a reporter for BusinessWeek.com in Fort Lee, N.J.