This book demonstrates how the global market for Islamic financial services has shown stronggrowth in recent years and shown remarkable resilience during the globalfinancial crisis. Drawingon a range of international perspectives from the Gulf Cooperation Councilcountries, Malaysia, Pakistan, Australia and Europe, this book explores the characteristics and performance of Islamicfinance and banking and discusses future prospects.  It offers a comprehensive theoreticalframework for Shariah governance in Islamic financial institutions, explores Shariah-compliantequities, as well as issues in productivity, technology and efficiency. Itincludes a number of comparative studies on Islamic and conventionalbanks, Islamic and conventional unit trusts, and Islamic and conventionalbanks’ product mixes. The challenges and opportunities for the expansion ofIslamic finance and banking into Europe are explored through the contexts ofthe UK, Germany and Italy.