domingo, 18 de abril de 2010
E-commerce and Islamism
As it is broadly known, Islamism is a so traditional religion which has a great influence in the politics of Islamic countries. From my personal point of view, Islamic principles have caused some clash between religion and the way the economy advances in modern times.
Undoubtedly, one of the phenomenons that have revolutionized the current global economy is e-commerce, an innovative way of make transactions that have made them cheaper and faster. Moreover, e-commerce has allowed the convergence of myriads of buyers and salespersons around the world in a virtual and instantaneous place.
When these two elements (Islamism and e-commerce) join, one may think that there will be a clash. The article “E-commerce from an Islamic perspective” discus until what extent that clash takes place.
According to the article, Islamism has clear and maybe harsh rules regarding negotiation processes. Actually, those rules proposed by Islamism are the same ones that almost all the societies in the world desire negotiators to fulfill, with the exception of usury, which is not well-regarded in Islamic countries contrary to what happened in the rest of the world, where usury is just as normal as ask for a sales commission. The fact is that Islamism is too rigid when trying to make people to respect bargaining principles and there is when some conflicts arise with e-commerce. For example, Islamism assigned a great importance to the proper recognition of both parties involved in a financial transaction and rejects some kind of marketing strategies that use confusing messages in order to get consumers to buy some products. Regarding the last two concepts, e-commerce may not fulfill Islamic rules.
The clearest challenge for e-commerce to penetrate Islamic nations is the fact that they do not accept usury. That has obliged companies offering products on the web to think about other ways of payment, without using credit cards since they use financial interests and it is not allowed in Islamic nations. One of those ways of payment is letter of credit, for instance.
As conclusion, I think that Islamic nations should either find the way to manipulate things (because use a letter of credit or a credit card is the same thing) in order to incorporate financial innovations within their economic activities while respecting their own rules, or open themselves to the new financial innovations of the world, otherwise they will be in a disadvantageous position since the rest of the world is benefiting from them
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