Islamic banking: religion or leadership?

I am going to speak neither about the basis of the regular usurious banks nor the Islamic banks because this is not my specialty. However, I shall shed light on an important issue related to the banks which are compatible with the provisions of Islamic law and culture in light of the global economic changes which is attracting the human resources' "leaders" working in the traditional banks to run the business of Islamic banking. Here, in this context, I would like to put these question before you, especially but not exclusively:

Is a bank manager committed to the rulings of Islamic Shari`ah by keeping away from all transactions that are not compatible with the rulings of Shari`ah?

Does he consult the Fatwa committee and Islamic supervision seriously?

Does the new Islamic bank adopt new ideological leadership that may negatively affect the Islamic culture?

Does such a leader care about the system of promoting human resources to face the requirements of working in the Islamic financial foundations?

Does such a leader understand the explanation of Allah's Saying: "Help one another in Al-Birr and At-Taqwâ (virtue, righteousness and piety); but do not help one another in sin and transgression. And fear Allâh. Verily, Allâh is Severe in punishment." [Surat Al Ma'idah: 5]?

Will he be accurate in rules and accounting standards of Islamic banking operations as well as funding methodology of Islamic banking; will he be committed to that?

What is the nature of his role in developing the Islamic finance industry? And what are the bases upon which he depend?

I am not talking about the accumulated banking experiences for those leaders. I am not talking about their professional possibilities in this field, and surely I am not talking about their abilities to lead the Islamic banks. Finally, I do not dare to speak about their intentions which cannot be known but by the One who prohibited usury. I am talking about their intellectual leadership system which they use during work and moving it from the traditional financial foundations to Islamic banks and the effect on them.

For every leader there are some principles and values in which he believes, a leadership vision to adopt, and a strategy by which he does. There is no doubt these factors affect the work environment in some ways. To be more precise, Dr. Khalid Al Jeraisy, the author of "Administrative leadership from the Islamic and administrative perspective" defined administrative leadership as "The process of positive effect in the activity of the subjects; individuals and groups for the purpose of its activation with directing that activity toward achieving a specific objective."

When analyzing this objectively and linking it with the reality of things, we can see that such a leader will affect directly on the human and work activity of that Islamic bank which is represented in the way of communication and behaviors of its employees from one side and their knowledge and skills from another hand to form a new culture after awhile adopted by the bank when executing the required tasks as well as its daily transactions whether internal: among the employees themselves, or external: among clients and investors.

These words are for taking caution and are not part of negativity and for the closure of minds. I do not want to see our Islamic finance foundation turning into semi-Islamic and I do not want to melt the Islamic banking to emulate the governmental work and the global finance work, especially, if we know that there is a real need for developing the Islamic finance foundations and their services.

On other hand, which is important, is to benefit from those leaders who work in traditional banks to promote the Islamic finance foundations through merging their strong knowledge and their professional skills with those who work originally in the Islamic foundations, such as managers and under the umbrella of the Fatwa committee and Shari`ah control. I believe that this mixture of leadership, administration, and specialty which is compatible with the rulings of Shari`ah shall promote the Islamic foundation work, but rather will promote the Islamic foundations work system and their products, hoping that all people adopt that Islamic approach as being "a religion" before being a mean to collect and invest money through institutional work and leadership.