Islamic Banking and Financial Regulation in Malaysia: Between State Sharia, the Courts and the Islamic Moral Economy

Abstract

This article examines Malaysia’s emergence as a global centre of Islamic finance through a pragmatic centralised regulatory framework that promotes legal certainty and consonance with the conventional financial system rather than the development of a distinctly Islamic moral economy. It also highlights the judiciary’s challenge to Central Bank regulatory dominance through civil sharia compliance cases based on Anglo-Muslim law.