A news report by CNBC on Understanding of Islamic Finance

Hamilton Bradshaw Private Equity Chief Executive Officer James Caan says Islamic Finance is attractive to consumers of all faiths. He says the principles of Shariah-compliant financing could have helped preventing the global financial crisis if adopted worldwide. He spoke as part of Bloomberg Television's "Faith in Finance."

Since its formation in the mid-1970s Islamic finance has grown rapidly, and appears to have come of age since the global financial crisis by nearly doubling in size from just over US $600 billion in 2007 to approximately $1.2 trillion in 2010.

In this latest Knowledge Works seminar Professor Mervyn Lewis will share the secrets of what makes Islamic finance a success and what attracts investors.Professor Lewis will explore Islam itself, and shari'a law, for these provide the religious and ethical principles underpinning the system. 

Iqbal Khan is the CEO of Fajr Capital, one of the world's leading ethical investment firms and the recipient of the 2012 Royal Award for Islamic Finance. He spoke with The Prospect Group about Fajr Capital's investment approach, the resilience of Islamic financial institutions, and the evolution of the Islamic financial community.

In the first half of 2012 around $19 billion of Islamic finance was raised through the capital markets in the GCC and Asia, already topping the previous year's total. In this CreditMatters TV segment, Standard & Poor's Associate Director Karim Nassif explains why infrastructure projects and corporates are often at the front of the queue when tapping this dynamic cross-border market.