By Abdelghani Echchabi, Hassanuddeen Abd Aziz
Abstract
The main purpose of the paper is to examine the perception of the customers regarding the shari’ah compliance of Islamic banks in Malaysia. The study also attempts to assess the awareness of the Islamic banks’ customers of the shari’ah compliance concept, as well as their exposure and perception of the current criticisms concerning shari’ah compliance of Islamic banks. The study employs qualitative approach to understand in detail the customers’ perception and experiences about shari’ah compliance of Islamic banks. Semi structured interview is used with 10 Islamic banks’ customers in Malaysia. The study also used phenomenological techniques to analyse the data. The findings revealed that the customers perceive that Islamic banks as they practice today are still not shari’ah compliant. However, they are optimistic about the achievement of full shari’ah compliance in the future. This research is the first to study the shari’ah compliance of Islamic banks in Malaysia from the customers’ perspective, by using qualitative research approach. The findings of this study are of original importance, because they unveil the customers’ experience in an area that has been severely looked at from the professional and experts’ point of view only.
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