MANAMA: Mahmood Rafique, Editor: The chief architect of the modern Islamic banking and finance, philanthropist, and shariáh authority Sheikh Saleh Abdulla Kamel passed away at the age of 81, leaving behind an unfathomable gap not for the banking and finance industry but for the global community.
Sheikh Saleh Kamel, a renowned Saudi businessman and an authority on Islamic banking and finance, has gained a tall stature, among journalists, following the severe and uncalled for criticism came from the Western media in the fallout of the commonly known 9/11 attacks on the US soil in September 2001. The authoritative statement given by late Sheikh Saleh Kamel on the sidelines of the World Islamic Banking Conference in 2001 in the Kingdom of Bahrain is still fresh in my mind when we posed him a question what is the future of Islamic banking?
“The future of Islamic banking is very bright, as these institutions are based on the Shariáh principles how anyone could brand the entire industry (as supportive of any act of terrorism) without knowing the basic facts, investigation and rationale behind the attacks,” late Sheikh Saleh Kamel told reporters, adding that those who had been branding the entire Islamic banking industry supportive or in complicity in the US terrorists attacks were wrong, and the time had proved that those allegations were not based on facts but was result of an irrational or a spontaneous behavior.
As often said, that the time is the best healer, this had been proved correct in the post 9/11 period when the global Islamic banking industry had come under great scrutiny but finally sanity prevailed and non-sense labelling on the industry just vanished in couple of years.
Late Sheikh Kamel while explaining the failures of the Islamic world or the developing nations for not appropriately answering the harsh and cruel treatment of Islamic banking industry by the Western media due to absence of media houses by the Islamic countries, those constitutes one third of the global population. “I am keen on establishing TV channels those should spearhead the correct information about Islam and Islamic values especially for those in the West,” late Sheikh Saleh said. I still remember, when asked who will fund such channel, he gave a full blue print from individual investments to the OIC level so that the voice of Muslim Ummah should be heard in those countries those are not familiar with the great religion of Islam, its values, its rich civilization and teachings of the Prophet Mohammed (Peace Be Upon Him), which prohibits violence or discrimination and promotes peaceful co-existence in the world.
The founder of the ABG also indicated that he would fight in the Court of Law in the US to stop uncalled criticism on Islamic banking and finance, for that matter.
Sheikh Saleh Kamel has had an accomplished life as a businessman, Islamic banker and financier, philanthropist and great man in the modern times and we all will miss him on the AGM meetings of ABG every year and also his absence will be felt at the global fora like WIBC and other regional international meetings.
Late, Sheikh Saleh Kamel the Chairman of the General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions (CIBAFI), the global umbrella of Islamic financial institutions, led its 20th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on May 7th, 2020. The meeting was held remotely for the first time, due to the growing health concerns related to the Covid-19.
The meeting was opened and chaired by the Chairman Sheikh Saleh A. Kamel, who thanked the members and stakeholders from across countries who attended and witnessed the first virtual Annual General Meeting.
