Connecting intelligence with intelligence

Sign in to your Zawya account

Forgot username or password?
×

Back to Sign-In Form

If you have forgotten your login details, please re-confirm your email address below and your username and password will be sent to this email shortly.

Need more help?

Customer Support support@zawya.com
+971 4 233 8178

×
Advertisement

Jul 07 2011

Passing it on

By Paul McNamara Islamic finance is akin to ethical finance, or so we are told. Islamic finance is not just for Muslims, or so we are told. Well if that is the case, here is an interesting conundrum.

During a panel discussion at an Islamic finance conference recently, a member of the audience asked a question of some leading Shari'ah experts: should Takaful sales agents be Muslim?

The reply that came from one of the leading speakers, and an acknowledged expert in Shari'ah, was that an agent selling Takaful to a member of the public should be like a 'teacher' and pass on to the client an understanding of the nature of Takaful and how it differs from conventional insurance. Furthermore, only a Muslim was in a position to do this properly.

I wondered if this was a standard view. Surely if Takaful is a good product then the religion of the people selling it should have as little bearing as the religion of the people buying it? If we are really honest when we say that Islamic finance is for everyone then that means in every regard.

That is why we can easily have the CEOs of Islamic banks being non-Muslim. What they need for the job is to be excellent in their work and understand Islamic finance - but they do not need to convert to Islam in order to be good at their jobs.

But back to Takaful again, keen eyed readers will remember that last week in The Islamic Globe we reported that Mohd Jafni Abd Jalil, Etiqa Takaful's head of life agency development, told us that his firm was keen on improving uptake among non-Muslims, which currently stands at 30% and also that Takaful Ikhlas indicated that it also hopes to penetrate the non-Muslim segment of the market. I know from conversations that I have had with the CEOs of Takaful companies in the UAE that they are also keen on getting the maximum number of customers and they do not exclude non-Muslims.

So what is it to be? Are we saying that Takaful is for everyone irrespective of religion or are we saying that it is for Muslims only? And if it is for everyone then do we care what religion the agent selling it happens to be?

A rough headcount of agents selling Takaful in Malaysia seemed to suggest that almost half of the sales forces are not Muslim, which is probably on a par with the kinds of numbers reflected in any type of sales force in the country.

What worries me is that it seems that we might be preaching one thing but doing another. I would encourage leaders in the Takaful industry to give us their thoughts on this by sending us a letter or an email - since we need some clarity. And the sales forces out there in the trenches need some clarity too and that has to come from us.

© The Islamic Globe 2011

© Copyright Zawya. All Rights Reserved.

Be the first to comment

People Who Read This Also Read

Oddly Enough

Send This Article To Your Friends

All fields are required.

Use commas for multiple email addresses

We'll use your email address to send the article on your behalf and it will not be collected or used for any other purposes.

X
Panel