Hamilton businessman Abdullahi Dayib, has set up his own company, Al-Haramain Islamic Finance, to offer New Zealand's first Islamic "mortgages".

He is a Muslim, whose religion bars conventional borrowing with interest payments, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Mr Dayib, who is Somali-born, said shariah, or Islamic law, deemed the payment or receipt of interest - known as riba - akin to usury.

To some, the divide between the Muslim and Western worlds has
never been wider. But for the European Islamic Investment Bank's John
Weguelin, the two sides have never been closer.

That Weguelin is not a Muslim is a non-issue according to sharia law,
which restricts investment options but not necessarily investment
advisers. The U.S. Census does not track the number of American
Muslims, but a recent Pew Research survey estimates that there are 2.4
million Muslims in the country.

It is hard to believe how Islamic finance, based on ideals of fairness, would be involved in a deal for ultra-luxury cards.

However, given that the financiers are oil-rich Gulf states, there is no wonder that development of poor countries and raising the standard of living are not priorities ...

Kuwait's The Investment Dar (TID) has received international recognition for its lead in the landmark GBP479m acquisition of the Aston Martin Car Company in the UK.

Bahrain-based Gulf Finance House (GFH) has reported strong interest from Western institutional investors, days after the bank became the first Islamic finance house from the Gulf to list on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).Conditional trading of its global depository receipts (GDR) started on the LSE on Friday and unconditional trading under the symbol "GFH" will start on Wednesday.