>> " * * * [For devout Muslims] investments have
>> to conform with sharia, or Islamic law, which means
>> that . . . they have to use special types of financing
>> to avoid violating Muslim rules against charging interest."
>
> * * * Does anyone have further info or relevant
> background on this?
There is, as it were, a wealth of information readily available - just do a Google or Yahoo search for, e.g.,
riba interest
noting in so doing the gazillions of intellectualized devices that enable avoidance of the Qur'aan prohbitions, i.e. (Big Surprise!), ways functionally identical to the Orthodox Jewish bankers' and other business person's use, under (despite?) Jewish law, of the "Hetter Iske" (s/k/a, "Hetter Iska") form of agreement.
Sometimes, apparently, stretching a hippotomus' neck really does enable calling it a giraffe.