Experiences of IIIE: 1983-2007

Dr. Asad Zaman

Draft: 20^th September 2007. To be presented at 7^th International Conference on Islamic Economics, Jeddah, 1-3 April 2008. Comments welcome: asadzaman@alum.mit.edu

At the dawn of the fifteenth century Hijri, two universities International Islamic University of Islamabad (IIUI) and International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) were launched with the mission of integrating the Islamic world view and all modern branches of knowledge. An important portion of this mission was the production of a body of knowledge to be known as “Islamic Economics.” This would provide an alternative to conventional modern economic theory which is based on interest and on the concept of homo economicus, both of which are alien to Islamic ideals. The object of this note is to review the experience of International Institute of Islamic Economics (IIIE), one of the key departments of IIUI. Our goal is to learn from this experience so as to advance the project more efficiently in the future. We will discuss the successes so as to be able to build on them, and also the failures, so as to avoid them.