Editing Islamic economics (section)

==As an academic discipline==

===Achievements===

In 1998, Javed Ahmad Khan compiled ''Islamic Economics and Finance: A Bibliography'', and listed 1600 items published over 20 years, including books, articles, dissertations, theses and conference papers. 

As of 2008 there were:
*Eight magazines recently started "exclusively devoted to Islamic economics and finance",{{sfn|Ali|2008|p=155}}
*484 research projects in various universities of ten countries including the US, the UK and Germany.{{sfn|Ali|2008|p=164}}
*200 Ph.D. dissertations completed at different universities of the world,{{sfn|Ali|2008|p=164}} literature published English, Arabic, [[Urdu]], Bahasa Malaysia, Turkish and other regional languages.{{sfn|Khan|2013|p=5}}
*"Over a thousand unique titles on Islamic economics and finance" in IFP databank{{sfn|Ali|2008|p=164}}
*1500 conferences (whose proceedings are available in IFP databank){{sfn|Khan|2013|p=5}}{{sfn|Ali|2008|p=155}}
*One school—the Kulliyyah of Economics and Management Sciences of International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)—has produced over 2000 graduates in 25 years as of 2009.{{sfn|Haneef|2009|p=4}}{{sfn|Khan|2013|p=7}}

King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah hosted the first international conference on Islamic economics in 1976. Thereafter the International Association for Islamic Economics in collaboration with the Islamic Development Bank has held conferences in Islamabad (1983), Kuala Lumpur (1992), Loughborough (2000), Bahrain (2003), Jakarta (2005), Jeddah (2008) and Iqbal (2008).{{sfn|Khan|2013|p=6}}

===Challenges===
Along with these achievements, some Islamic economists have complained of problems in the academic discipline: a shift in interest away from Islamic Economics to Islamic Finance since the 1980s, a shortage of university courses, reading materials that are "either scant or of poor quality",{{sfn|Khan|2013|p=8}} lack of intellectual freedom,{{sfn|Khan|2013|p=11}} "narrow focus" on interest-free banking and [[zakat]] without data-based research to substantiate claim made for them—that interest causes economic problems or that zakat solves them.{{sfn|Khan|2013|pp=14–15}}

A number of economists have lamented that while [[Islamic Finance]] was originally a "[[subset]]" of Islamic Economics, economics and research in pure Islamic economics has been "shifted to the back burner".{{sfn|Kayed|2008|p=193}} Funding for research has gone to Islamic Finance{{sfn|Haneef|2009|p=2}} despite the lack of "scientific knowledge to back" the claims made for Islamic Finance.<ref name=Tahir_2009-71>Tahir, Sayyid (January 2009) "Islamic finance: Undergraduate education". ''Islamic Economic Studies'' 16 (1–2): 71</ref> Enrollment has subsided in classes<ref name=siddiqi_2008-b>[http://islamiccenter.kaau.edu.sa/7iecon/index.html Siddiqi, Muhammad Nejatullah, 2008 ''Obstacles to Islamic economics research.'' Paper presented at 7th International Conference on Islamic Economics, King Abdulaziz University, 1–3 April, Jeddah] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090513210320/http://islamiccenter.kaau.edu.sa/7iecon/index.html |date=May 13, 2009 }}</ref> and second and third generation Islamic economists are scarce,{{sfn|Haneef|2009|p=2}} some institutions have "lost their real direction and some have even been closed".<ref name=Iqbal_2008-80>[http://islamiccenter.kaau.edu.sa/7iecon/index.html Iqbal, Munawar. 2008. ''Contributions of the last six conferences.'' Paper presented at 7th International Conference on Islamic Economics, King Abdulaziz University, 1–3 April, Jeddah, p.80] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090513210320/http://islamiccenter.kaau.edu.sa/7iecon/index.html |date=May 13, 2009 }}</ref> and interest of economists in the field's "grand idea" of providing an alternative to capitalism and socialism has "yielded" to the "needs" of the "industry" of Islamic Finance.<ref name=siddiqi_2008-b/>{{sfn|Khan|2013|pp=13–14}}

According to economist Rasem Kayed, while a number of universities and institutes of higher learning now offer courses on Islamic economics and finance "most of the courses offered by these institutions pertain to [[Islamic finance]] rather than Islamic economics."{{sfn|Kayed|2008|p=190–191}}
Surveying Islamic economics and finance courses being offered as of 2008 by 14 universities in Muslim countries, Kayed found 551 courses in conventional economics and finance, and only 12 courses in Islamic economics and finance (only 2% of the total).{{sfn|Kayed|2008|p=190–191}} This "appalling and intolerable ... negligence" was made worse by the curriculum of the courses which failed to debate "the issues" the discipline or give "due thought to ... the future development of Islamic financial industry" but rather attempted "to squeeze as much abstract information" as possible in their courses, according to Kayed.{{sfn|Kayed|2008|p=193}}{{sfn|Khan|2013|pp=6–7}}

Another economist (Muhammad Akram Khan) lamented that "the real problem is that despite efforts for developing a separate discipline of Islamic economics, there is not much that can be genuinely called `economics`. Most of Islamic economics consists of theology on economic matters."{{sfn|Khan|2013|p=7}}
Another (M.N. Siddiqi) notes Islamic economics has been teaching "conventional economics from an Islamic perspective", rather than Islamic economics.<ref name=Hasan-2005-30/><ref>Siddiqi, M.N., 1996, ''Teaching economics in Islamic perspective.'' Jeddah: King Abdulaziz University, Centre for Research in Islamic Economics</ref>

Despite its start in 1976, as of 2009, 2013 Islamic economics was called still in its infancy,{{sfn|Haneef|2009|p=4}}{{sfn|Khan|2013|p=7}} its "curricula frames, course structures, reading materials, and research", "mostly" anchored in the "mainstream tradition",{{sfn|Khan|2013|p=7}}<ref name=Hasan-2005-30>{{cite journal |last1=Hasan |first1=Zubair |title=Treatment of Consumption in Islamic Economics: An Appraisal |journal=Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Islamic Economics |date=2005 |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=29–46 |doi=10.4197/islec.18-2.2|s2cid=17674403 |url=https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/3059/1/MPRA_paper_3059.pdf }}</ref> "lacking sufficiency, depth, coordination and direction," with teaching faculties in many cases ... found short of the needed knowledge, scholarship, and commitment."<ref name=Hasan_2009_81>Hasan, Zubair (January 2009) "Islamic finance education at the graduate level: Current state and challenges." ''Islamic Economic Studies'', 16 (1–2):81</ref>{{sfn|Khan|2013|pp=7–8}} "Distinct textbooks and teaching materials" required have been found to "neither exist" nor be "easy to create."{{sfn|Khan|2013|p=8}} Despite shortcomings in academic writing—most of the books are "not cohesive" and are "at best no more than extended papers on specific topics"—constructive evaluations are not common and response to what there is even less common.<ref name=Hasan_2009_92-3>Hasan, Zubair (January 2009) "Islamic finance education at the graduate level: Current state and challenges." ''Islamic Economic Studies'', 16 (1–2):92–93</ref> 
The lack of an Islamic economics textbook "looms large" for Muslim economists and scholars. Despite the holding of a workshop in November 2010 to arrange the writing of such a textbook, the participation of "a number of eminent Muslim economists", (at the International Institute of Islamic Thought in London) and the appointment of "a noted Muslim economist" to coordinate the production of the textbook, as of 2015 "no standard textbook of Islamic economics was available."{{sfn|Khan|2013|pp=9–10}}

Islamic economic institutes are not known for their intellectual freedom, and according to Muhammad Akram Khan are unlikely to allow criticism of the ideas or policies of their founding leaders or governments. The Centre for Research in Islamic Economics, an organ of the Jeddah University in Saudi Arabia, for example, "cannot allow publication of any work that goes against the orthodox thinking of the influential" Saudi religious leadership.{{sfn|Khan|2013|p=11}} Despite "tall talk about ijtehad", Islamic economists "are shy" about "suggesting innovative ideas" for fear of antagonizing religious clerics.{{sfn|Khan|2013|p=11}}

Use of Islamic terminology not only for distinctive Islamic concepts such as ''riba, zakat, mudaraba'' but also for concepts that do not have specific Islamic connotation—''adl'' for justice, ''hukuma'' for government—locking out non-Muslim and even not Arabic speaking readers from the content of Islamic economics and even "giving legitimacy" to "pendantry" in the field.{{sfn|Khan|2013|p=12}}