Usually, I dispense with my Chartered Insurance Institute magazine rather abruptly. However, this month I was intrigued by the leader Faith and Finance. It seems that in the twenty years since I have left the corporate world of insurance, there is a whole new market in Takaful Insurance – one based on Sharia law. Perhaps you can guess some of my imaginings….. however, it turns out to be a case of a type of mutual insurance which gets round the Islamic rulings on usury. Before everyone starts to opt for a type of cover which seems to promise a return of unused premiums, let me caution you. And give a word in season. When theologians/scholars/learned men (for that is their gender) presume to pontificate on the way a commercial market can be brought into line with their view of a religion…..where does it end?
Policies written on Stonehenge perchance? Or burnt in a cauldron?