Islamic Economy and Civil Economy: the two halves of the Platonic myth of Symposium

There are many issues concerning the problematic relations between western world and islamic world: the political, cultural, ideological, religious oppositions; the intensification of international islamist terrorism; the existing conflicts in many Middle East countries; the process of globalization; the creation of integrated areas of trade in the Mediterranean; the large presence of muslim population in Europe; the growing flow of migrants from muslim countries to European Union countries; the oil price fluctuations. International trade between western and islamic world and economic collaboration among companies of different cultures in various fields of activity (even in financial branch) can be an instrument of peace, dialogue and integration which can neutralize the clash of civilizations as proposed particularly in Civil Economy vision. So it can become strategic to identify the possible points of contact between Civil Economy and Islamic Economy, because this process of mutual understanding can provide a sound basis for proposals of cooperation with a greater degree of awareness from an ethical and symbolic point of view, because guided by the research for unity in diversity, given the common call to moral principles in the vision of economic activity. In this spirit a rejoining between Judeo-Christian world and Islamic world can be pursued as in the myth of the two halves described in Plato's Symposium. A first point of contact between the Civil Economy and Islamic Economy is that both do not exclude ethics from their horizon. Islamic Economy is based on a close relationship between religion and public life (and thus also between religion and economic activity). The precepts contained in Sharia do not pertain only to God-man relationship, but are compulsory principles of conduct valid in every area of life. Civil Economy has its historical roots in catholic spirituality (Benedictine and Franciscan) that influenced economic activity, although in a less prescriptive and totalizing way in comparison with the dictates of Islam, but it also benefited from secular cultural achievements of Civil Humanism of the first half of XV century and of Italian (Neapolitan and Milanese) Enlightenment. But other concordances between Islamic and Civil Economy paradigms emerge in the conception of economic activity and of savings; in the conception of market, firm, economic agent; in the aversion to inequality; in the fight against usury, poverty, monopoly; in the vision of private property which should have limits as well as a social function; in the awareness of the need for safeguarding natural resources given by God which should be managed by man as a simple trustee; in the centrality attributed to entrepreneurship, to work and to its equitable remuneration; in the importance attributed to relational goods in economy which often proceeds through partnerships among people; in the importance of solidarity within the community; in the need for a balanced mix of different principles of economic regulation (market exchange, gift, redistribution) (alssirf fi alssuq, sadaqa, zakah) and in the intervention of the State to correct market failures at macro and micro economic level. But also the guiding principles of Islamic finance have some historical affinity with the criteria which have guided in the past the experience of Franciscan pawnshops and in the present the activities of Western ethical banks and of ethical finance. Islamic Banking is based in fact on a finance which is not self referential, but supports real economy; absolute prohibition of applying interest rate (riba); prohibition of uncertainty (gharar) when relevant; prohibition of speculation (maysir); principle of risk sharing and profit sharing; promotion of ethical investments with prohibition (haram) of investing in some sectors (production and sale of alcoholic drinks, weapons, tobacco; piggery and processing of pork meat, gambling, night clubs, pornography); risk assessment by bank based more on the goodness of the projects rather than on its financial soundness or the presence of warranties. These principles, with the necessary caution due to different cultural and legal contexts, can provide useful suggestions for a possible reform of Western finance after the financial crisis of 2008 and may represent a chance for debating the opportunity of the diffusion of Islamic finance in Western countries, specially in the European countries bordering the Mediterranean as a further ground of possible integration between the Western and Islamic world.