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Seminar

The Paradox of Islamic Finance

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  • Department of Global Development
  • global development
  • Economics

Fall 2025 Harry ’51 and Joshua ’49 Tsujimoto Perspectives in Global Development Seminar Series

About the speaker

Ryan Calder is associate professor of sociology and director of the Program in Islamic Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He studies the moral quandaries and ethical debates that arise when new markets and industries are born or existing ones change suddenly. Currently, he is pursuing one project on frequent-flyer miles and the financialization of travel, another on Saudi Arabia in the age of climate change and unprecedented domestic social reform, one collaboration on NIL and the emergence of a labor market in college sports, and another collaboration on “anti-woke” right-wing platforms for e-commerce and digital payment.

Abstract

In the 1960s, Islamic finance began as a utopian experiment in interest-free banking to serve pious peasants, operated from a Volkswagen van in Egypt’s Nile Delta. Today, Islamic finance is a $4 trillion industry present in over 100 countries and thoroughly intertwined with the global financial system. It is larger than the entire financial sector of South America, Eastern Europe (excluding Russia), or India. It offers Islamic analogues of most financial products, from auto finance and credit cards to bonds and derivatives. Instead of charging or receiving interest, which many Muslims consider sinful, Islamic products rely on complex legal justifications and baroque infrastructures to simulate the economic effects of interest.
 
So how did Islamic finance get so big in just half a century? I address this question in three parts. First, how do Islamic financial institutions make money without charging interest? Second, why is there a $4 trillion Islamic-finance industry, but no other “religious-finance industry” of comparable prominence? Even among the many comminglings of religion and modern rational capitalism, this industry’s sheer size and scope stand out. And third, why do hundreds of millions of Muslims patronize Islamic finance when it overtly simulates interest? I challenge with Max Weber’s thesis that religious authority cannot regulate modern rational capitalism, showing how hyper-empowered shariah experts adapt classical Islamic law to the conditions of 21st-century finance. Belying media tropes of shariah as atavistic and irrational, the rise of Islamic finance demonstrates how contemporary shariah can be made consonant with neoliberal economic modernity. Along the way, Islamic finance has even spawned new ways of being a pious and ethical subject in a financial age.

About the seminar series

The Harry ’51 & Joshua ’49 Tsujimoto Perspectives in Global Development Seminar Series showcases innovative approaches to development with experts from around the globe. Each year, the series attracts online registrants from over 45 countries and more than 350 organizations. 

Seminars are held Wednesdays from 12:20-1:10 p.m. eastern time during the semester in 175 Warren Hall. Students, faculty and the general public are welcome to attend in-person or via Zoom.

The series is co-sponsored by the Department of Global Development, the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, and the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management as part of courses GDEV 4961, AEM 4961, NTRES 4961, GDEV 6960, AEM 6960, and NTRES 6960.
 

Date & Time

November 5, 2025
12:20 pm - 1:10 pm

Location

175 Warren Hall
Ryan Calder

More information about this event.

Contact Information

Mariah Doyle-Stephenson

  • md2237 [at] cornell.edu

Speaker

Ryan Calder, John Hopkins University

Departments

Global Development Section

Natural Resources and the Environment Section

Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management

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