Finnish Muslims and interest-based loans – ideals and realities
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23311488 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Joonas Maristo (0000-0003-1408-2660, University of Helsinki, corresponding author), Teemu Pauha (0000-0002-2922-7538, University of Helsinki) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-07-27 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Contemporary Islam (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1872-0218 • E-ISSN: 1872-0226 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s11562-026-00624-4 |
| OpenAlex | W7171320335 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 40 |
In this article, we discuss the economic practices of Muslims in Finland, particularly attitudes towards interest-based loans. We are interested in the following questions: What are the financial practices regarding interest-based loans among Finnish Muslims? How do they perceive the lawfulness or prohibition of such loans? What factors (religious or other) influence the decision to take out interest-based loans? Does standard Islam play a role in the decision making? Our analysis is based on a survey of 143 respondents. The responses indicate that Finnish Muslims engage in a variety of practices and utilize different arguments to justify their practices towards interest-based loans. Normative Islamic texts such as fatwa literature have both prohibitive and permissive rulings on interest-based transactions. The aim is to investigate how and to what extent standard Islam influences and interacts with lived Islam. Our results show that whether a respondent had taken an interest-based loan did not appear to be linked to their economic situation. While the respondents’ economic situation was not associated with loan-taking, their religiosity was: a person who never prays is about 50 times more likely to have taken an interest-based loan than a person who prays daily.
Islam · Loan · Normative · Prosperity · Religiosity · Respondent · Variety (cybernetics) · Halal products and consumer behavior · Islamic Finance and Banking Studies · Microfinance and Financial Inclusion
Finnish Shia Youth and the Qur’an
Islamic Finance
Western Muslims and the Future of Islam
Routledge Handbook of Islamic Law
Sharī‘a and Muslim Minorities
Lived Islam
Digital Islamic authority
Perceived Discrimination and Religiosity Among Young Refugees in Germany. Insights from a Longitudinal Study
The Necessity of Taking a Loan, and the Necessity of Not Doing So
Testing the Veracity of Self-Reported Religious Practice in the Muslim World
Allah, Villa, Volvo
The Rejection of Interest-Based Loans among Muslim Entrepreneurs and Professionals in Finland
Halal Money
Religious Group Identification and Inter-Religious Relations
Individualization and religious authority in Western European Islam
Riba and Interest Concept and Banking in the Ottoman Empire
Determinants of immigrants’ entry to homeownership in three nordic capital city regions
The Interaction of Local Context and Cultural Background
Entry to homeownership among immigrants
Financial satisfaction over the life course
Exploring religiosity and attitudes towards Christians and non-believers among recent Muslim refugees to Finland
Religion as a barrier to the use of student loans for higher education
The Power of European Fatwas
Islamic Laws on Riba (Interest) and Their Economoic Implications
Religious development from adolescence to early adulthood among Muslim and Christian youth in Germany
Religiosity Inside and Outside the Muslim World
The Social Construction of Shar'a
Religious norms and homeownership among Norwegian Muslim women
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |