Al-Rajhi Cement - Jordan issues the first Islamic Sukuk in Jordan managed by Capital Investments

The JD85m, 7-year Sukuk was subscribed for by a number of leading Islamic and commercial banks, including Capital Bank, Cairo Amman Bank, Islamic International Arab Bank, Union Bank, Jordan Kuwait Bank, Bank of Jordan, and Arab Islamic Bank.

Capital Investments announced this landmark transaction during a launch ceremony which was attended by Al-Rajhi Cement - Jordan Chairman Omar Bin Sulaiman Al-Rajhi and Central Bank of Jordan Governor H.E. Faris Sharaf, alongside chairmen and representatives of the participating banks, including Cairo Amman Bank Chairman Khaled Al-Masri, Arab Bank Chief Executive Officer Nemeh Sabbagh, representing Islamic International Arab Bank, Union Bank General Manager H.E. Nadia Al Saeed, Arab Islamic Bank General Manager Atiyeh Shananier, Jordan Kuwait Bank Deputy General Manager Tawfiq Mukahal, and Bank of Jordan Deputy General Manager Mohammad Hamdan, together with Chairman of Capital Bank and Capital Investments H.E. Basem Khalil Al Salem. The event was also attended by a number of local and Arab media representatives.

Highlighting the significance of this transaction, Al Salem expressed great confidence in Jordan's resilient economy, which he said is built on solid foundations that enable it to flexibly accommodate regional economic and political fluctuations. He also lauded the progressive pro-investment policies adopted by the country, and underscored the role of the participating institutions as major market players contributing to the sustainable growth in the national economy.

H.E. Al Salem thanked both the Government and the Central Bank of Jordan for their invaluable support and dedicated efforts in opening the Jordanian capital market to new investment instruments and Islamic finance transactions in particular, creating new means of capitalizing on lucrative investment opportunities in the Kingdom.

Al-Rajhi Cement - Jordan's Chairman, Omar Bin Sulaiman Al-Rajhi, praised Jordan's Government and national institutions for their efforts in creating a positive investment environment and supporting the implementation of economically viable investments in the Kingdom. He also thanked them for their support for the issuance of the first Sukuk in Jordan, thus enabling the company to adhere to its commitment to aligning its financing activities with Islamic Shari'a law.

The Sukuk were structured based on the Ijara (leasing) principle, through which the benefit in the underlying leased assets is represented by the issued Sukuk (securities).

Al-Rajhi Cement - Jordan was established as a private shareholding company in 2006 and is wholly owned by Al-Rajhi Cement Holding Ltd, which is registered in the Dubai International Financial Centre. Al-Rajhi Cement - Jordan established and operates a cement manufacturing plant in Al-Mafraq, Jordan, which commenced distribution of its products in the local market during 2010.

In turn, Capital Investments' CEO Omar Al Wir communicated his pride in the cooperation that brought together leading financial institutions to introduce Sukuk for the first time in the local market, stating that "We hope that this alliance will pave the way for future successful Islamic finance transactions in the Kingdom."

Al Wir also commended the General Ifta' Department's efforts in facilitating the Shari'a-compliant structuring of the Sukuk and its contribution to the successful closing of this landmark transaction. He also thanked Al-Tamimi & Company Advocates and Legal Consultants for their role as legal counsel for the transaction, noting the firm's extensive experience in Islamic finance transactions in the Gulf.

In addition, Omar Al Wir stated that this issuance corresponds to the growing interest in and appetite for Islamic financing instruments in the local market, and that it reflects the readiness of the Jordanian economy to accommodate developments in the regional and international markets, and the growing Islamic finance segment in particular.

Islamic Ethics of Organ Transplantation and Brain Death

The ethical problems raised by recent advances in medicine are the domain of the ethicist, medical philosopher, lawyers, members of Parliament, religious leaders as well as physicians involved in the dilemmas of day to day problems. Islam is not only a religion; it is a code of life and hence encompasses the secular with the spiritual, the mundane with the celestial, through its holistic approach. The Islamic scholar is both the jurist and the ethicist. It is true that new methods and techniques in medicine have no precedent and hence make it difficult for Islamic jurists to give their verdict. However, the Islamic jurists were very active in the last decade and held many conferences to which many doctors were called to discuss issues such as brain death, organ transplantation, and new methods of procreation, abortion and euthanasia. They passed resolutions that help formulating the rules regarding medical ethics in the arena of rapidly advancing the medicine of high technology.

It is important to have an idea how the jurists reach their rulings and judgment on these thorny hair-raising contentious issues. Islamic jurisprudence is based on two pillars: 1) O' Sool (fundamental, basis) 2) Foroo branches) which include the actual rulings of different Islamic jurisprudence schools in various aspects of life and worship. The jurist reaches his verdict through Careful study of the Holy Quran the Sunna (the trodden path) which include the sayings and speeches of the Prophet Mohammed, Peace Be Upon Him (PBUH) (Sunna Qaw-liya), his deeds (Sunna Filiyya and his approvals (Sunna Taqiiriya). The paradigmatic behavior of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) is the example and model that each Muslim aspires to reach. If the jurist is unable to reach a verdict through studying the Holy Quran and scrutinizing the Sunna, he uses analogy and reasoning (Ijtihad or Qiyas). He can also use other sources e.g. Al Masaleh Almursalah, which simply means taking care of public interest provided it does not clash with a clear text of the Quran or Sunna.The Hanafi School of jurisprudence has in addition a similar source which they call Isthsan, i.e. seeking the best solution for general interest. Ijma is a unanimous opinion of the whole community of Islamic jurists all over the world on a certain issue. It was, and still is, very difficult to achieve; however the consensus of the majority of jurists is more pragmatic. In fact, almost all the rulings that were passed by Islamic jurists conferences were passed by majority of votes.

Interest in Islam mounts after 11 September

A year ago they feared their religion would be tarred by the attack that left over 3,000 dead in  on New York and Washington. But Muslims across Britain are now crediting an '11 September factor' for the upsurge of interest in their religion.

From Islamic bookshops and university comparative religion courses to the dusty corridors of Whitehall, non-Muslims are rushing to find out more about the beliefs of Islam and the life of the Prophet Mohammed.

Sales of the Muslim holy book, the Koran, have gone through the roof. Penguin, the publishers of the best-known English-language translation of the Koran, registered a 15-fold increase in the three months following 11 September and sales have held up well since.

Meanwhile the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has been overwhelmed by the response to new Islamic Awareness courses they have set up for diplomats being posted to Muslim countries and London-based staff with an interest in the wider Islamic world.

Not since the Satanic Verses affair in 1989, when novelist Salman Rushdie was condemned to death for blasphemy by Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini, has Islam been such a sensitive political issue in Britain.

The rise in Islamophobia and even racist attacks has been matched, sometimes in the same geographical area, by a thirst for knowledge of a religion which many are surprised to find has common links to Christianity and Judaism. Moses and Christ are both considered prophets in Islam.

Dilowar Khan, director of the East London mosque which holds open days for non-Muslims four times a year, said that visits from schools, university students and even tourists had increased over the past year. At the same time he said there had been an average of two or three people asking to convert every month.

'A similar thing happened during the Salman Rushdie affair. A lot of people converted to Islam as they struggled to understand what was happening. Of course, there has been the opposite effect as well, some people have become more hostile, said Mr Khan.

The East London mosque now plans to publish a magazine Discover Islam to cater for the demand for information. The first issue will contain an article on the attractions of the Muslim faith by journalist Yvonne Ridley, held captive by the Taliban last year and now considering converting to Islam.

Dr Abdulkarim Khalil, director of the Al-Manaar Cultural Heritage Centre in Kensington, West London, which opened shortly after 11 September, said: 'In a sense it was a natural reaction to the events. People wanted to know more and we expected that, but no one expected the scale of the interest, not just here but across the world.'

Dr Khalil said that there had been some minor incidents immediately after the terror attacks, when women were verbally abused for wearing the headscarf, the hejab. 'But we've been surprised that nothing serious has happened. We've even had non-Muslim members of the local community coming to reassure us and express their support for the centre.' Although some experts talk of a 'know thy enemy factor' in the rush to find out about Islam in the aftermath of 11 September, the panic has now settled into genuine interest.

At the traditionally Arabist Foreign Office, the fascination for Islam has filtered down throughout the department over the past year. Trial Islamic Awareness Training sessions have proved so successful that Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has decided to offer them to all Foreign Office staff likely to come into contact with Islamic issues. The courses consist of a lecture on the basic tenets of Islam followed by a speech by a visiting expert on contemporary Muslim issues and a visit to a mosque.

In a speech to the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies earlier this year, Straw urged a greater understanding of Islam. Last month the Foreign Office also hosted the largest reception for the Muslim community ever held by a government department, although many thought they were being softened up for a planned attack on Iraq.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'The cultural element has always been a central part of the training of diplomats, but it has usually been part of language courses. We wanted to extend the training and make it become systematic throughout the office.'