Here is the transcript of a lecture, "The Incoherence of Claims of Incoherence: Some Remarks on Internal Consistency and Legitimacy in Contemporary Islamic Financial Ethics" that I recently gave at Wharton (U Penn), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 15, 2009.

A must read Newsweek article on a military guard at the US Guantanamo detention center who reverted to Islam at the center.

The text of a lecture that I delivered at Wesleyan University on February 16, 2009 entitled "The Road Ahead?: An Islamic Financial Ethicist's Observations on the Current Economic Crisis and Possible Recovery Strategies is available here as a PDF. May Allah reward Chaplain Ustadhah Marwa Aly and the Wesleyan MSA who invited me.

The following is the conclusion of the text of the speech:

To conclude, the Islamic ethicist would call for deep structural changes to the prevailing financial system [namely]...1) the elimination of interest-based debt financing mechanisms in favor of asset-based financing mechanisms and 2)the elimination of risk-shifting risk management tools in favor their risk-sharing, tangible asset-based counterparts. This evolutionary path, while it may seem radical and strange to some, is, in fact, not. Rather such changes, to a large extent, are consistent with what several economists and finance academics have already been calling for and are likely to continue to call for in the...future.

I look forward to your questions. Thank you.