Cultural Correspondent

The Alliance Francaise de Dacca organized an 'Ibsen evening' to mark Norwegian poet and playwright Henrik Ibsen's 101st death anniversary on Wednesday.
   The programme featured a presentation on 'A glimpse of Henrik Ibsen and his music composer Edvard Grieg', discussion and recitation of Ibsen's poems.
   The ambassador of Norway, Ingebjorg Stofring, attended the function as chief guest.
   Poet Munzur-i-Mowla presided over the function while poet Rabiul Husain and Professor Muhammad Samad of the Social Welfare Institute of Dhaka University attended the occasion as guests of honour.
   Deputy director of the Alliance Francaise de Dacca, Laurent Jalicous, delivered the welcome speech and its programme officer, Kazi A Muktadir, conducted the programme.
   New Age reporter and translator of Ibsen's poems, Anisur Rahman, presented the paper on 'A glimpse of Henrik Ibsen and his music composer Edvard Grieg' to mark the death of Norwegian music composer Edvard Grieg (1843-1907).
   Grieg was a close friend of Henrik Ibsen and composed music for one of his plays, Peer Gynt, and some poems.
   Poet Aslam Sani, Dr Silverine de Silva, artist Shaheen Rashid, poet Shahadat Hossain Nipu, poet Sheikh Firoj Ahmad, young German writer Coroline Schneider and artist Laila Sharmin recited some of Ibsen's poems.
   Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) is one of the towering figures of world literature. Born in Skien in Norway on March 20, 1828, Ibsen wrote 26 plays and about 300 poems.
   The Norwegian envoy, Ingebjorg Stofrin, said, 'Last year the Ibsen's 100th death anniversary was celebrated in Bangladesh and many other countries in the world. This year marks the celebration of the 100th death anniversary of one of the most famous music composers, Edvard Grieg.'
   'Grieg was a close friend of the Norwegian playwright and poet, Henrik Ibsen, and composed music for one of his plays, Peer Gynt,' he added.
   In his paper Anisur Rahman said, 'The play Peer Gynt concludes with the hope of a hope. Hope always finds its place in life. Life finds its place in music. Music itself is freedom and provides liberty to freedom (sic), that Greig and Ibsen uphold.'

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4-day Nazrul Fair begins in Dhaka

Cultural Correspondent

A four-day Nazrul Fair began Wednesday at the Shaukat Osman Auditorium of Central Public Library in Dhaka to celebrate the 108th birth anniversary of the national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam.
   Former chief election commissioner Justice Abdur Rouf inaugurated the fair organised by the Nazrul Academy.
   The academy this year awarded the Nazrul Academy Padak to Khalid Hossain for his lofty achievements as a Nazrul singer and Asadul Haque for research on the poet's works.
   Mohammad Mizanur Rahman presented the keynote paper titled 'Rastriya Parjaye Jatiya Kobi Kazi Nazrul Islam' at the inaugural session of the fair, with Khilkhil Kazi, Abdul Mannan Syed, and Abul Kashem Fazlul Haque participating as the panel discussants. The chairman of the academy, Professor Ashraf Siddiquee, presided over the function.
   Mizanur Rahman in his paper highlighted the movements for humanism, fraternity and self reliance in every sector of society triggered by Nazrul literature.
   Justice Abdur Rouf said through his literary works Nazrul Islam had always upheld the common people's rights. 'If we don't pay due homage and importance to the national poet, the whole nation will be deprived. We should work for building a better society, which the poet had dreamed of throughout his life.'
   A cultural function followed the discussion and the award giving ceremony.
   The organisers have set-up stalls at the programme venue for selling books, music albums, T-shirts etc.

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Islamic banking: A new perspective

Syed Badrul Haque

Islamic Banking Finance and Insurance A Global Overview by Salahuddin Ahmed is a six hundred-page book spread into thirteen chapters. It is a product of hard and painstaking endeavour on the part of the author spanning over a number of years. The book is the outcome of the author's materials used in teaching Islamic law which included Islamic banking law at the law schools of the University of New South Wales, Australia and the University of North Carolina, United States. Islamic banking is now an established area of law. Religion badge notwithstanding, the universality of the concept is now well recognised across the religio-political divide. In today's consumer republic, the economic force that dictates and defines the economy is essentially based on interest. Banking without interest may seem illusory to the traditional financial community and some academics, lawyers, students et el. In such a context, Islamic banking, relatively a new phenomenon in the perception of banking puts a significant break in its stereotypical understanding and impels us to take a fresh look into the economic system in a profound way. There is something accusatorial in the process through which the rich nations become richer when the poor nations burdened with avalanche of debts sink into the morass of poverty as a result. Islamic banking, that is, the practice of Shariah-compliant interest-free banking, the author feels, could take off many tears from the victims of the full-blown consumer capitalism that has overwhelming sway in the present-day world.
   Since the establishment of the Dubai Islamic Bank, the first Islamic bank in 1975, more than 200 Shariah-compliant banks have been set up with a spread of 25,000 branches worldwide. Nearly all of them are in Muslim countries, though there are some in European countries and the United States as well. Iran and Pakistan claim that the banking system in their countries is based on the principles of Islamic banking. Currently, assets in the global Islamic banking industry stand at more than US$260 billion.
   The author discusses the basis and modes of Islamic finance and defines some of the key terms associated with the practice. Two large chapters have been devoted to the operation of Islamic banking in the Middle East and South and South-East Asia. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait in the Middle East and Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and Bangladesh in the South-East and South Asia received fairly good coverage. The position of Islamic banking in Iran, Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey have been analysed besides the development of Islamic banking in non-Muslim countries like Thailand, Philippines and Singapore. A whole chapter has been devoted to the position of Islamic banking in the Western countries which include the UK and other European countries besides the United States. One may note that the Muslim population in the United States and the UK is 8 million and 3 million respectively. In the UK, the government has already taken positive steps towards ensuring Islamic finance as a viable alternative to conventional finance.
   One gets a fairly good idea from the book about the operational details of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and its sister organisations in many countries of the world. According to the author one of the prime objectives of the IDB is to help boost trade exchanges between the Muslim member states in which roughly 660 million presently inhabit. Some specialist Islamic organisations like the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB), Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) and International Islamic Rating Agency (IIRA) have been duly focussed.
   The book deals with Islamic bonds (sukuks), which did not exist until very recent times. The author holds it is a bold innovation in the field of finance. Islamic funds, providers for Islamic financial services and Islamic indexing have been well placed. Islamic mortgage (Shariah-compliant) home financing has been discussed, which are now available in many countries including the UK and the USA. The last chapter deals with Islamic insurance (takaful), which is gaining increasing popularity in all Muslim countries including Bangladesh. The elements of gambling and uncertainty as well as the interest on investments used to maintain the life funds were the factors why the traditional insurance products were not acceptable to Shariah, the author notes.
   The book is a significant addition to the increasing number of works on Islamic banking and finance. It's virtues are considerable for those who care to know the subject more closely. By marshalling a wealth of empirical details and discussion, the writer has succeeded to guide a reader with a better appreciation of the concept that has become so relevant to contemporary audience. The book's brisk clarity and lucidity are worth noting. It is an essential read for any student of Islamic banking, finance and insurance.
   The book has been acclaimed in the Oxford journal Journal of Islamic Studies 2007 vol. 18, pp. 152-156 and the New Horizon, July/August 2006, pp. 45-46 (Institute of Islamic Banking and Insurance, London). The book is available through Internet like All Bookstores.com, Epinions.com and has achieved '4.5-star' rating (see CERT Publications).
   The author studied law at the University of Dhaka and King's College of the University of London. He is a Barrister-at-Law of Lincoln's Inn, London and the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Australia and an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. He has taught law in the United Kingdom in the early seventies and later at the Law School of the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia for 25 years. He is a former Visiting Professor at the Law School of the University of North Carolina, United States. He is author of a number of books published from London, Sydney, New Delhi and Kuala Lumpur.
   Review of Islamic Banking Finance and Insurance A global Overview by Salahuddin Ahmed (Publisher A.S. Noordeen, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2006)

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Tania Sharmeen

As part of the Movement Against Piracy, the mobile court recently fined six shops in Comilla at taka 94 thousand for storing pirated copies of music CDs for sale.
   The convicted shops were Russell Electronics, DVD VCD Center, Mehedi Audio, Sabah Audio, Western Audio and Asha Audio.
   In an exemplary measure against CD piracy, the police led by Ataul Gani, a first class magistrate of Comilla district administrator of police ceased nearly 10 thousand fake CD, VCD (with covers) raiding from 20 to 25 shops in the three markets - Wahidujjaman Market, Shomobaye Market and Sufia Market at Comilla town.
   Following the five-hour raid, all the ceased CD, VCD and MP3 worth nearly Taka 10 lakh were put in fire and destroyed in font of district administrator office.
   The officials from Dhaka based CD-VCD production houses like G-Series, Laser Vision, Impress Audio Vision, CD Plus, Agniveena Jhongkar and journalists of print and electronic media were also present during the drive.
   While asked about the measure, the proprietor of G-Series Nazmul Haque Bhuiyan said, 'The piracy has been causing serious damage to our fair business. The pirated copies spread out as soon as any new album is released in the audio market. We can not even retrieve the production cost.'
   'Both the music industry and the artistes are being victimised for such illegal act,' he said adding 'the government has been deprived of VAT and it has been posing a serious threat to the development of local music industry.'

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