Finnish Muslims and interest-based loans – ideals and realities

Finnish Muslims and interest-based loans – ideals and realities | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Finnish Muslims and interest-based loans – ideals and realities Joonas Maristo, Teemu Pauha This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8737361/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract In this article, we discuss the economic practices of Muslims in Finland, particularly attitudes towards interest-based loans. We are interested in the following questions: What are the financial practices regarding interest-based loans among Finnish Muslims? How do they perceive the lawfulness or prohibition of such loans? What factors (religious or otherwise) influence the decision to take out interest-based loans? Our analysis is based on a survey of 140 respondents. The responses indicate that Finnish Muslims engage in a variety of practices and utilize different arguments or rulings ( fatwas ) to justify their practices towards interest-based loans. In islamic premodern and modern literature, there is a wealth of fatwas on the topic, both opposing and favoring Muslim involvement in ribā -related transactions. Since many authoritative texts forbid the use of ribā, the majority of fatwas are prohibitive, although permissive opinions also exist. Our results interestingly show, that whether a respondent had taken an interest-based loan did not appear to be linked to their economic situation. While the respondents' economic situation was not associated with loan-taking, their religiosity was. Holding all other variables in the model constant, a person who never prays is about 50 times more likely to have taken an interest-based loan than a person who prays daily. Interest-based loans Finnish Muslims legal opinions legal rulings fatwas lived Islam Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files Supplement2Table1..docx Supplement3Table2..docx Supplement4Table3..docx Supplement5Table4..docx Supplement6Table5..docx Supplement7Table6..docx Supplement8Informedconcent.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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We are interested in the following questions: What are the financial practices regarding interest-based loans among Finnish Muslims? How do they perceive the lawfulness or prohibition of such loans? What factors (religious or otherwise) influence the decision to take out interest-based loans?\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOur analysis is based on a survey of 140 respondents. The responses indicate that Finnish Muslims engage in a variety of practices and utilize different arguments or rulings (\u003cem\u003efatwas\u003c/em\u003e) to justify their practices towards interest-based loans. In islamic premodern and modern literature, there is a wealth of \u003cem\u003efatwas\u003c/em\u003e on the topic, both opposing and favoring Muslim involvement in \u003cem\u003eribā\u003c/em\u003e-related transactions. 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