SOAS-QFC Islamic Finance Public Lecture and Workshop on Islamic Cryptocurrencies

This year’s SOAS-QFC Islamic Finance Public Lecture and Workshop, which took place from 15-16 June at the Centre of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law (CIMEL), chaired by Dr Jonathan Ercanbrack, gathered outstanding luminaries of Islamic finance and jurisprudence (fiqh) to discuss cryptocurrencies from an Islamic perspective and its latest developments in the United Kingdom, MENA and MESEA regions.

The conversations were lively and far-ranging, reflecting the opportunities and risks that cryptos present to Islamic finance and the Islamic economy more generally.

SOAS University of London and the Qatar Financial Centre are grateful to the keynote speakers of the Public Lecture, His Excellency Prof Koutoub Mustafa Sano (OIC Islamic Fiqh Academy) and Mr Harris Irfan (UK Islamic FinTech Panel, Gateway Global, Cordoba Capital Ltd), including Sir Ross Cranston (Former judge of the High Court, Visiting Prof at the LSE) for his skilful moderation of the event.

The prestigious SOAS-QFC Workshop, held in collaboration with Prof Syed Nazim Ali (Research Professor and Director of the Research Division at the College of Islamic Studies, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar) and moderated by Prof Frank E. Vogel (Independent Scholar, Founding director of the Islamic Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School) was attended by some of the most prominent experts and practitioners in Islamic finance and law.

SOAS and the QFC would like to thank, in no particular order, Prof Habib Ahmed, Prof Frank Vogel, Prof Syed Nazim Ali, Dr Samir Alamad, Dr Iqbal Asaria, Prof Mehmet Asutay, Mr Murat Aydemir, Prof Ahmet F. Aysan, Dr Muhammad Al-Bashir, Prof Mehmet Bulut, Mufti Abdulkadir Barkatulla, Mr Abdulkader Thomas, Mr Richard de Belder, Dr Valentino Cattelan, Mr Majid Dawood, Mr Husam El-Khatib, Dr Jonathan Ercanbrack, Mr Michael Gassner, Mr Salah Gueydi, Dr Farrukh Habib, Mr Harris Irfan, Mr Sajjad Khoshroo, Dr Amel Makhlouf, Mr Gonzalo Rodriguez Marin, Ms Fara Mohammad, Mr Nasr Jassim Al-Nasr, Prof Volker Nienhaus, Mufti Bilal Omarjee, Mr Umar Farooq Patel, Dr Edana Richardson, Mr Afnan Alam, Mr Adnan Shah, Mr Omar Shaikh, Ms Jennifer Schwalbenberg and Shaikh Haytham Tamim.

The Workshop proceedings are preceded by written commentaries, which, along with the event’s audio recordings, will be reflected in an upcoming analytical workshop report.

Dr Jonathan Ercanbrack’s gratitude also goes out to the approximately 200 Public Lecture attendees, both in person and online, who made the time to address the topic of cryptocurrencies within the realm of Islamic finance.

Both the Public Lecture and the Workshop are organised in collaboration with the College of Islamic Studies, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, and the Islamic Shari’ah Research Academy (ISRA), and generously supported by the Qatar Financial Centre Authority (QFCA).