The State Duma, the Russian parliament's lower chamber, on July 19 approved in its final reading a bill allowing an experiment to introduce the Islamic banking system in the country's four mostly Muslim-populated regions -- Bashkortostan, Chechnya, Daghestan, and Tatarstan. The trial will start on September 1 and last for two years. The experiment, which can be extended depending on the results, will be supervised by the central bank. Among other things, Islamic banking, also known as Shari'a-compliant finance, bans the collection and payment of interest by lenders and investors. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Idel.Realities, click here.
